Revolutions
by Jen-chan-shaw
Summary: "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news?" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between the casts of MaiHime, KannaMiko and Utena. Shiznat, Jurimeko, Chitena, Shizkane & Chimeko (eventually). (Romance. Friendship. Familial.) XOver.
1. Prologue

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions - Prologue

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

December 3, 2012 – January 4, 2013

Word Count: Approx 3,900

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

I waffled quite a bit as to where to put this fic. I really really really didn't want to put it under crossover, even though that is where it probably should belong. Since the majority of the characters are from Mai Hime, and the setting is Fuuka, ultimately, I thought the MH board was a more appropriate place than the KnM board. I'm trying to write this story as an ensemble cast, and while Chikane will probably end up with the most screen time, the Hime cast (mostly Natsuki, Shizuru and Mai) in combination should have even more while the RGU characters play key supporting roles.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

*MANY AGES AGO*

_In the beginning, there were people - just regular people, doing regular things, and sometimes, not-so-regular things. The people would help each other, would hurt each other, and would exhibit the entire spectrum of human behavior. _

_It was from the people that the essence of The Prince was fashioned. Every time someone helped somebody else, every time someone rescued another, was nice to another, the essence of The Prince was there. Over time, this essence got stronger and stronger, until eventually there became an incarnation of this essence - a personification, a manifestation. That was when The Prince was born._

_Of course, people were not always good to one another. Sometimes they would hurt each other. Sometimes they would be hurt. They would drown in jealousy, in loneliness, in despair. The essence of The Witch and The Eight Headed Demon of Despair were born from the people too, and some would argue they were born much, much earlier than The Prince. _

_There were a myriad of essences, each that spawned their own incarnation - some godly, some demonic, and everything in between. And as the people would interact with each other, so too, did the embodiments. They existed everywhere people did, and once in a while, their very forms were summoned to walk among the people._

_During a dark period in humanity, the essence of despair was so strong that the Eight Headed Demon itself was called to earth. Orochi, as the people called him, ravaged the planet, hell bent on destroying anything and everything in his path. When two women - the Sun and Moon Miko, summoned a god to defeat and seal it, The Prince was with them not only in spiritual essence, for they exuded him in their will and courage, but in body as well, in the form of Ame no Murakumo, God of Swords. It was a terrific battle, and The Prince sealed the Eight Headed Demon._

_Unfortunately, what The Prince failed to do was to sever the Eight Headed Demon from the essence that fueled it. So long as despair was felt by the people, the Eight Headed Demon could never be destroyed. Laughingly, the Demon told The Prince, even as he lay bleeding in his shackles and wards, that one day, when enough feelings of despair had accumulated, he would have the strength needed to break free again. _

_The Prince felt a deep trouble at this declaration, for he knew it was true. Even the two miko who had shown such strong echoes of his own essence that he had been able to manifest a physical form to aid them with, were susceptible to fueling the Demon they had fought so hard to seal. __Tragically, to defeat Orochi, and to undo all his horrors, the gods had to be sufficiently moved in order to exercise their great power together. A sacrifice was required. One miko died by the hand of the other, and the surviving one's grief and guilt was overwhelming._

_So moved were the gods by the actions of the Sun and Moon Miko, these mere mortals so small in the universe and the grand scheme of things, that they undid Orochi's horrors and even granted humanity a mechanism through which to shape their world as they saw fit. That was the beginning of the Festival of the Hime Star._

_This experience left The Prince saddened however, and it may have been because of this that led to his ultimate downfall, for he resolved to do the best he could, and help, and save, and inspire as many as he could. He began to show his physical form more and more often, saving hundreds, helping thousands, asking nothing in return, for he did not want a repeat of the tragedy of the Sun and Moon Miko. His strength ultimately began to wane, for the power that fueled him, the essence of helpfulness, of courage, and kindness, began to be channeled by less and less people. Who needed to have the essence of a prince, when there was an actual prince around? _

_He grew weak, and ashen, and started wasting away. He was dying._

_And so it was that The Witch made a decision with enormous ramifications, as she watched the Prince grow weaker and weaker. She loved him, but could never be with him, for it was her power, her essence, to remain unfulfilled and alone. The Witch did to The Prince, what The Prince could not do to the Eight Headed Demon. She severed the incarnation from the essence, cutting off The Prince from the power that fueled him._

_Alas, in the absence of the Prince, other forces were able to expand their influence. The Obsidian Lord, fed by humanity's greed and lust for power, soon saw the opportunity to abuse the Festival of the Hime Star, and began to manipulate the mechanics of the Festival for himself with the help of lessor servants._

* * *

*SIXTEEN YEARS AGO*

Homura Nagi frowned.

Something had changed – something big and something small at the same time. The butterfly perched on his finger didn't even flutter its wings, but to beings such as he, it was as though a long frozen tornado had suddenly ripped the roof of its cage, and then, just as suddenly, disappeared.

It was the slight squeaking of wheels that finally startled the butterfly from his finger, and he looked over at Kazahana Mashiro, who was just arriving to the library of Fuuka Academy, quietly being pushed in her wheelchair by the discreet youngster she had taken under her wing – Himeno Fumi. The expression on Mashiro's face was impassive as always, but the trouble in her eyes told Nagi that she must have felt what he had felt too.

With no further greeting, he simply asked her, "hey! What just happened?"

Fumi, for one, looked confused, unable to grasp what Nagi could be referring to. To her, it was as quiet and calm in the early morning library as it ever was. She looked down at her mistress for an explanation.

"Shh," was Mashiro's reply, as she narrowed her eyes in concentration, trying to feel out and decipher the remaining tendrils of energy for a clue about what could have changed so irrevocably in the universe.

Everything was still in the library that knew to be, and Fumi, sensing the mood of her mistress, also remained as still as possible, unconsciously holding her breath.

In the resulting silence, both Mashiro and Nagi could hear it, the barely there, but unmistakeable, inescapable wispy giggle of shadows:

_'Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!'_

_'Or possibly,' to confuse'?'_

_'Ara, I don't think she gets to choose!'_

And then the whispers devolved into laugher that soon disappeared altogether. Mashiro frowned as she regarded Nagi, whose eyebrow was cocked with intrigue. Fumi released the breath she'd been holding.

"Unbelievable!" Nagi snorted derisively. "A new Prince after all this time? Hah! I didn't think humanity could birth another! Oh, my Lord will get a laugh out of this!"

Mashiro's frown intensified in the white haired boy's direction. "Don't think so lightly of humanity, Nagi."

"Oh? Are you so confident that your girl," Nagi flicked his eyes up at Fumi, who looked back at him blankly, "will have a chance against my lord this time?"

"If not Fumi-san, then one of the others." Mashiro shot back coldly. "This time, Onii-sama will not have his way."

"Oowaa," Nagi wiggled his fingers mockingly. "Mashiro-chan is scary when she's determined! Well, who knows, maybe you _will_ win this time around. There's still a few months before Orochi's scheduled defeat kicks off the Hime Festival, so we still have a little more time to hedge some bets before things really get crazy, don't we?" He laughed a little, entertaining himself with a spin around. "Anyway, can I have my book back now please? You've borrowed it for quite a while already."

The pale haired Child's hard look at the boy grew somehow colder for a moment, before she looked up at Fumi, her gaze softening, and gave the girl the barest of nods. Silently, the girl maid went into the satchel she wore to bring out a solo leather bound volume, handing it to Nagi.

"Thank you, Fumi-chan!" Nagi said, winking at her. "Hey, don't be upset that Mashiro-chan doesn't believe in you. You can come over to my Lord's side anytime, okay? Just bring those cookies you know I like!" With that, he pranced off, tossing the book up and down in the air as he sauntered before disappearing entirely.

Mashiro and Fumi stood silently in the now abandoned library for a moment before Mashiro sagged a little in her chair. She looked up at her maid, a regretful expression on her features. "I'm sorry, Fumi-san. That was rude of me."

But Fumi only smiled down serenely at her mistress. "It's okay, Mashiro-sama. Fumi knows she isn't smart. But whatever she can help you with, she will."

Her maid's devotion finally managed to coax the trouble from her face. Mashiro smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Fumi-san. Let's go back now. I need to think about what this could mean. Were you able to hear the shadows?"

Fumi shook her head.

Mashiro considered this for a moment. "Hmm… perhaps it is better that you could not. Their riddles tend to provoke and unsettle rather than to guide. I need to think about the implications some more."

* * *

In the end, however, simply thinking was not enough to shed adequate light on the situation, and Mashiro needed more active investigation.

The place most likely to hold the answers, a school so different and yet so similar to her own, was closed to her. Whatever had happened, had happened of course at that school, but she dared not enter there. None of her kind was welcome within its stylized, rose-themed, ivory gates, and though she could sense that the power which had always warned her away from the place had diminished, the echoes and smoke of so many years of dark desire and manipulation still haunted the school. Foreboding and malice still dwelled at Ohtori Academy, for all that its students and staff were ignorant of it.

She was reduced to waiting for wisps of shadowy gossip on the wind, though the shadow girls did not visit often, and when they did, their messages were obscured with incomprehensible metaphors and laughter, even to her.

As the days fell off the calendar, and the godless month approached, Mashiro watched Oogami Shrine like a hawk. She had just cause for worry.

300 years had passed since the last cycle, and the shrine had lost all its influence on humanity's leaders, as well as many of its own records and safe-keepings. It was a miracle that the few remaining priests of the shrine remembered the importance of their mission at all, another miracle still that they were able to find and provide a little bit of guidance to the reborn Sun and Moon Miko.

It was at Oogami Shrine that irrevocable proof of the Prince's second coming was finally revealed to Mashiro. She watched in fascination as one of the very necks of Orochi himself found the hope and strength to rise up against his master, siding with the Sun and Moon Miko. This should never have been possible, Mashiro knew. That the boy was able to do so was mind boggling. It could only mean that the Prince had indeed returned, that bastion of what was good and noble about humanity.

In her amazement, Mashiro was overjoyed. Could it be that the cycle would finally be broken? Could the Obsidian Lord be thwarted before the Hime Star even re-appeared? Might she win, without needing to execute her plans, without needing to play the game?

But her hopes were dashed as the cycle was not broken. She watched in horror and bitterness as the Miko of the Moon eschewed the chance to break free; making the choice to continue the cycle. Orochi was merely sealed once again, when he could have been destroyed, and with his sealing, the Festival of the Hime Star began.

Mashiro could feel her brother awaken in the world.

She lamented what could have been only for a moment. The game was afoot; she had to finish her own preparations.

She had to find the Hime before her brother could.

Caught up as she was in her own searches, Mashiro almost missed the significance of one little girl being born into the world, one little girl who was not a Hime, but a princess in her own right.

* * *

She was reborn as a healthy, baby girl with her memories as Himemiya Chikane fully intact, a phenomenon that proved first a curse and then a blessing to the orphaned, unwed, teenaged mother she was born to. The trauma she suffered from being trapped in a physical and emotional form as weak and powerless as a newborn even while her mind retained the facilities and intellect of the adolescent she used to be, caused her to fuss and cry almost non-stop for the first several days of her new life; she was a colic baby.

She had expected to be imprisoned, had planned for it, really. For her brutality against her most beloved Himeko, she had resigned to die and for her soul to be locked in an eternity of imprisonment inside the Lunar Shrine, outside of time and the mortal coil.

Indeed, for the first few days of her new life, she thought that this was indeed what had actually happened to her. Unable to speak, her body unresponsive, drifting between sleep and wakefulness and unable to differentiate between the two, she had only her thoughts and memories to accompany her. Nightmares and dreams, longing and loneliness, Himeko's tearful goodbye as they parted, Himeko's horrified screaming as she was ravaged, the turmoil and trauma of it rolled into an unending miasma of suffocation.

That she would spend the rest of eternity in this hell was too much. She cried out. She cried and she cried, unable to comprehend time as she did so.

It was her mother's miserable tears dropping on her face that finally lead her out of the darkness, that cut through the nightmares, and helped Chikane to finally stop crying and open her new eyes for the first time. She almost went into shock when she realized that she was not, in fact, in hell. It took her a while, but eventually, with dubiousness, the epiphany finally dawned on her as to what could only have happened:

She was reborn.

She was part of the living world

She was part of *Himeko's* living world.

And the joy of that epiphany prompted her out of her ruminations with a laugh at the absurdity of it all. It was her first laugh, just a gurgle, really, but an occasion to which her mother was able to bear witness.

After the stress of dealing with a baby who was first colic and then (seemingly) catatonic, the simple sound brought tears of relief and joy to the teenager's eyes and those tears rolled unashamedly down her cheeks as she hugged her daughter close.

By luck or perhaps divine mockery, she was reborn still a Himemiya (though not related to her past life clan, as far as she could tell). She did not much care for the first name her mother gave her, so when she relearned how to speak a few months later, she told her mother that she wanted to be called Chikane. She spoke and was intelligible far sooner than when most babes began to babble. Most parents would have marvelled or perhaps freaked out. Her mother was surprised, but hadn't known just how out of the ordinary this really was, young as she was and with no family or friends to tell her otherwise.

Chikane's mother absolutely adored her, and raised her as best she could with what little that she had. They lived in a tiny one room apartment sharing the same futon for many years. Her under-aged mother had to complete mandatory education during the day, finishing the last two years of middle school while Chikane was in day care. To pay for the day care, her mother took on less-than-fully-legal janitorial work in the nights and evenings with companies who were willing to look the other way when she showed up to work with a sleeping baby strapped to her back.

The young mother's iron will, determination and tenacity to do right by her daughter won said daughter's love and respect, even overtop of the natural bond between parent and child, and Chikane resolved to do what she could to ease the burden she knew she must be to her mother. She cried very little. She ate without fuss. She slept through the night when she could though sometimes the nightmares were too much. It was a challenge, balancing what could pass for precociousness with what was just unnatural, but generally, she was able to do so.

She couldn't let anyone know about her memories, that she had somehow made it through the reincarnation cycle without drinking from the River Styx. Her mother *lived* for her. From the pieces of various conversation she gleamed from the social workers who came to check up on the two periodically, Chikane knew her mother had suffered from a debilitating depression during her pregnancy and had been on suicide watch - still was, in fact. It was only the necessities of caring for a helpless newborn that finally gave her mother the drive to live again at all. Chikane couldn't risk being taken away from her mother for any reason (scientific inquiry, investigation of demonic possession, or otherwise); her mother could easily fall back into that despair.

Indeed, the young mother had even confessed this to her child one night, a couple of weeks before Chikane had started baby babbling and before she realized her daughter could understand every word she said. On that night, as new parents are often known to do, she laid her drowsy babe down to sleep on their shared futon, kissed her tenderly on the brow, and told her that she would never let any harm befall her, that she was her most precious princess, that she loved her more than anything in the world.

And then she said, her ocean blue eyes brimming, her voice choking with emotion, "you saved my life, baby girl. If not for you, I'd be dead by now. If not for you, there's no reason for me to go on."

Chikane had gazed silently up at her mother. Wanting to give her mother some sign that she understood, but frustratingly still unable to get her muscles to respond the way she wanted them to, all she could do was reach up and grab a fistful of her mother's lovely pink hair before drifting off to sleep.

That night, Chikane dreamed of Himeko. Because her mother held her so comfortingly, the dreams were good. _'Wait for me,'_ she told the Himeko of her dreams, _'I'm not ready to be with you yet. But soon, I will be. Soon.'_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Once upon a time, there was a girl who watched a lot of harem anime and just wished that all these super-powered kick-ass females would stop fighting each other over some stupid guy and just be friends. In fact, she wished that all her favourite characters, from all the different series, could play together and be besties.

Many years later, this girl has grown up and become a big yuri fan. She still wishes for her favourite characters to play together, though 'play' now involves many different types of interactions and relationship. Bad things tend to happen to her favourite yuri characters and she believes that if they could reach across the boundaries of their own shows, they'd really be able to help one another with their problems and be better off for it. 'Revolution', is the latest iteration of this desire. Hopefully, there are other folks who may find these multi-cross-overs entertaining. ^_^

I beg forgiveness from folks who find bits and pieces of this fic familiar. There are indeed scenes that came from some of my prior writing, as they describe the basic premise of this fic which still fascinates me after all this time: how the universes of Utena, KannaMiko ( and now, MaiHime) could potentially work together. I'll try not to cheat *too* much though!

Special thanks to my guubear for putting up with me and being the world's bestest most awesomest sounding board.

Just one omake this time as this is just the prologue. I'm not sure how appropriate it is to lampoon the fic before it even officially begins. Future chapters will probably have more! ^_^;;

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Replaced by Younger Model

[NORMAL-SIZED-CHIKANE wearing the regular Mahoraba school uniform holds BABY-CHIKANE with outstretched arms under BABY-CHIKANE's armpits. BABY-CHIKANE is only wearing a diaper and sucking on a pacifier. They are both glaring at each other.]

NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE: [Eyebrow twitching] Okay squirt, let's get some things straight here. Just because you're small and cute does not mean you can get away with murder. You keep your drool covered fingers off of my Himeko, you hear?

BABY-CHIKANE: [Snorts derisively & rolls eyes]

NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE: [Eyebrow twitches more furiously] Why you little-!

[Just then, HIMEKO walks onto the scene. She sees NORMAL-SIZED-CHIKANE and BABY-CHIKANE and promptly gets hearts in her eyes as all manner of flowers and bubbles and sparkles start crowding the background.]

HIMEKO: Ohmigod, aren't you just the most adorable thing! [Quickly takes BABY-CHIKANE from NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE and starts cuddling her]

BABY-CHIKANE: [Looks over at NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE. Spits out pacifier to smirk at NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE. Sticks out her tongue and pulls down an eye] Pffft!

NORMAL-SIZED CHIKANE: * ~~~~ orz


	2. Chp 1 - A Hime Goes to Fuuka

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 1

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 3, 2013 – January 11, 2013

Word Count: Approx 6,300

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

[MaiHime][KannaMiko][Utena] "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between Chikane, Shizuru, Natsuki, Utena and others.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

The unexpected smell of dinner told Himemiya Chikane that her mother was home early when she opened the door to their apartment. Surprised, she called out for her mother, even as she unlaced and removed her shoes. "Tadaima! Okaa-sama? Is that you?"

"Oi! Okaeri, Chikane!" The voice came first through the curtain that separated the kitchen from the main living area of the apartment, followed a couple moments afterwards by a young, ocean-blue-eyed face framed with bright pink hair pulled up in a ponytail. Tenjou Utena smiled welcomingly at her daughter. "Quick, come help me with this pot."

Putting her school-case down, Chikane hurried into the kitchen, grabbed a couple of dish clothes, and quickly took the steaming pot from her mother. "Soup for dinner?" Chikane asked.

"Soup for dinner," Utena confirmed as she left the kitchen to set up the low kotatsu table in the main living area.

Soon dinner was ready, and they sat down to eat. "You're home early today," Chikane remarked casually.

"Yeah, I managed to finish report cards a little earlier than I thought I would," Utena replied. "Where abouts were you? Library?"

"Yes," Chikane nodded, lifting her glass of water to her lips. "Using the computer."

"Ah. Still cyber-stalking that cute photographer? Kururusomething?"

Chikane almost choked on her water, causing her mother to laugh and hand her a napkin. She gave her mother a chagrined look. "Occasionally googling someone is not cyber-stalking," she replied coolly, before turning the offensive back onto her mother, hiding the smirk she felt behind her napkin. "I know what cyber-stalking is. I've seen what your students have been leaving on your wall again."

"Aaah, do I still have those privacy settings wrong?" Utena winced, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. "Mou, Chikane, help your old woman out. I really don't want to give the school board any more ammunition. They've been giving me so much flack!"

Chikane feigned innocence. "Oh? Doesn't being named Educator-of-the-Year earn you any sort of respite?"

"Only the kind that also comes with a giant magnifying glass. Sometimes I think that award brought more trouble than opportunity." Utena sighed.

The sigh caught Chikane's attention. Her mother might be young (wasn't even 30 yet; too young for most to suspect she had a 15 year old daughter), but even that wasn't an excuse for how _ridiculously young_ Utena routinely could pass for. Long-time acquaintances swore she hadn't aged a day since she had Chikane. More often than not, strangers thought them to be sisters (with Chikane being the older sister. That Chikane really could be construed in some ways to _actually be_ older than her mother was beside the point).

Sometimes, however, when Utena would sigh a certain way or maybe look into the distance, Chikane could see some evidence of the years, the hard years, on her mother. Now was one of those times.

Despite the tiredness in her voice, Chikane knew her mother didn't really mean her words. Utena had all but broken her back with hard work over the last decade making betterments at the high school where she taught sports medicine and coached basketball. She had been speechless with emotion when her peers so publically acknowledged her good work.

When Chikane was a toddler, her mother had planned on joining the work force after finishing compulsory education, but Chikane convinced her to stay in school, reassuring her that she would be fine at home by herself. After all, she had said to her mother at the time, wouldn't their future would be a bit brighter if her mother was a little more employable? And wouldn't a high school diploma and maybe even a college degree after that be the best way to bring about that future?

So Utena (stirred but also a bit perturbed to be given this speech by her preschooler daughter), had grinded her way through high school and college and eventually became a teacher at a school in an underprivileged community where some of her students included young, unwed mothers like she had been as a teen. Her friendly, youthful relatability and continue-on-against-all-odds attitude became an inspiration to many of her students and she continually made huge impacts on many of the young lives who needed it most. Sometimes, those students tried to show their gratitude in ways that weren't entirely appropriate, and this gave Chikane the chance to tease her mother; Utena really wasn't as online or computer savvy as she needed to be in this day and age.

No, Chikane knew the award was a source of great pride for her mother, although it recently had brought about a situation that had lost Utena some sleep at night – the trouble her mother had alluded to.

Suddenly, Chikane had an inkling as to why her mother was home early today. Putting down her napkin and schooling her features carefully, she gave the pink haired woman her complete attention.

"... so I guess you've made a decision about that offer from Fuuka Academy?" Chikane asked softly.

Utena sighed again, her clear blue eyes downcast as she wrapped her hands around a warm cup of tea. "Yeah, I think I have."

"... and...?" Curiously, Chikane could feel her own heart beat a little faster. Her mother's decision had huge impacts on her own plans after all.

Utena continued to be silent for a moment longer, before finally looking Chikane firmly in her own blue-green irises. "Fuuka Acadamy is an amazing school, and the island is a beautiful place to live. It's got some really interesting policies and the facilities are top of the line, or will be anyway, after the reconstruction finishes. But, having said that, I just can't see myself teaching there."

Chikane held her mother's gaze for a moment longer and felt the expectation quietly drain from her limbs. She let go of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. It took her longer than a moment, but finally, she nodded. "… I understand." She simply said, and she did.

Her mother _saved lives_ where she worked, a beacon of hope for those who most needed it.

A Prince.

Utena couldn't do the good work she was meant to do, she was born to do, she _needed_ to do, at Fuuka Academy, where the students were mostly from the affluent and stable. Chikane couldn't imagine an Utena who wasn't saving somebody's world every single day.

Still, she would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed. One of the best benefits that Fuuka had for its teaching staff was that their children were accepted into the school for free, and the school was (at least until recently anyway), considered one of the best in the country. Chikane didn't sigh, though she wanted to. In her mind, Fuuka made the distance between hers and Himeko's different stations in life, somehow, a little smaller.

"I can't see myself teaching there," Utena repeated, her gaze softening, as she reached out and gently put her hand over top of her daughters. "But, I can totally see you going there. They've got a very strong arts program, and their leadership training program is revolutionary! The student council practically _runs_ the place. It would be perfect for you."

This was likely to be true.

Chikane had been extremely multi-talented in her previous life, and having been through everything before, she found school this time around to be easy enough. Rather than lashing out in boredom, she'd quietly taken on extra tasks to the delight of her teachers, dabbling in some of the extra-curriculars she had excelled at once upon a time. In particular, her maturity meant that she quickly became roped into student government, first chosen as class rep by her teachers, and then as elected by her peers. Leadership came easily to her and she enjoyed it enough as a distraction.

Archery and piano were her true favorites. The extra lengths it took for Chikane to find ways to practice those expensive arts had only fine-tuned her appreciation for them, frustrating though it had been, having to re-develop muscle memory from scratch when her mind was already at a master's level.

There was only one art that she knew thoroughly and completely by instinct: swordsmanship.

Chikane was resigned to the fact that her soul would forever be tied to Ame no Murakumo, the God of Swords.

In this life, she had only ever picked up a sword once, during an iaido presentation at a community centre, and felt a deep familiarity with the weapon. But one look at the inexplicable horror on her mother's face, and Chikane quietly gave the weapon back to the presenter. She wasn't sure why her mother had reacted the way she had, still wasn't sure to this day, but from that point on, one thing was clear to her:

Her mother. Hated. Swords.

Shaking her head free of loose thoughts, Chikane regarded her mother with eyebrows lifted in surprise. "I can't go to Fuuka. We couldn't possibly afford that," she said softly. Though she'd mostly made peace with it, sometimes, when she remembered the luxury and downright decadence of her past life, bitterness would creep into her heart, as it threatened to do now. It was a mercy, somewhat, that over the years, the detailed memories of her prior life had fuzzed over.

But Utena only gave Chikane an enigmatic smile. Wordlessly removing her hand from atop her daughter's, she reached under the table for a package that Chikane hadn't noticed and handed it to her.

"Hai. Here you go."

Chikane stared at the package – a brown envelop with Fuuka's school crest on it. Flicking her eyes back up to her mother's mirthful ones, Chikane opened the package and scanned the cover letter quickly. Her breath caught.

"A Kazahana scholarship? But how?"

Utena smiled. "When I went out there for my interview, I might have brought your national exam results with me, as well as copies of five or six of those high schools pre-acceptance letters. Their student aid department couldn't think of a better candidate for that scholarship."

Chikane was momentarily stunned. One by one, the obstacles in front of her were dissipating. There was only one left; the biggest one. Her brow crinkled. "But I'll be so far away from you."

Utena had come a very long way from the days when suicidal thoughts plagued her, though Chikane could still remember some of those scary nights. But there were no traces of the demons that her mother once dealt with now; Utena's ocean blue eyes shone with love and pride. "I'll have Chu-Chu. And you'll be back for the holidays, right?"

As if summoned by her name, a small mouse-sized purple-grey monkey jumped up on the table from somewhere, giving Chikane a small 'chu!' in greeting and then diving face first into the remains of dinner in Utena's bowl. Chikane barely even noticed her, accustomed as she was to her antics and ability to seemingly burst into existence from out of nowhere.

Quietly putting the package back on the table, Chikane got up, walked over to the other side of the low table where Utena was sitting, and gave her mother a tight hug from behind.

Chikane couldn't help but feel her heart soar. If she could get to Fuuka, such a prestigious school, and do well there, she would be just that much closer to being ready for Himeko.

* * *

"Mai! Maaai!" Minagi Mikoto burst into her dorm room on all fours, an expression of half proud and half crazed excitement clear on her face. "Look! Look, look, look!"

"Hmm? What is it, Mikoto?" Despite the abruptness of the entrance, apron clad Tokiha Mai wasn't even fazed enough to turn fully towards the door. Standing at the stove in the kitchen of their studio style dorm room and continuing to stir the pot of lunch she was working on, she only casually half glanced over her shoulder. What she saw prompted her eyebrows to arch as the surprise utterly missing in her before finally appeared on her face. Putting her chopsticks down and wiping her hands, Mai smiled broadly as she gave the small girl her full attention. "Eeeeh! That uniform looks good on you, Mikoto! You look so grown up!"

The black haired wild child beamed, standing up on her (hind) legs and spinning around with her arms outstretched to the sides, causing the grey pleated skirt of Fuuka High School's girl's uniform to twirl around her thighs. Fuuka High's trademark orange gold blazer was tailored to Mikoto's small torso (not a very smart idea, in Mai's opinion, as there was still a slim chance that the small girl could grow, unlikely though that was) and the girls' red bow was also knotted primly around Mikoto's neck just under the collar of her white dress shirt. Mai gave the accessory maybe 15 more minutes before it was accidentally lost or purposefully discarded.

Seeing Mikoto standing before her caused Mai's heart to tighten strangely in her chest.

Mikoto was in _high school_ now, she realized with not a small measure of wonder and worry. There definitely had to be some sort of shadowy power still at work that enabled Mikoto to pass the ninth grade, but since those powers seemed to be on their side, Mai decided not to worry too much about it. With the conclusion of the Hime Star Festival, the pretense that got Mai and her brother Takumi the Kazahana scholarship to attend Fuuka in the first place was no longer in effect. For a while, Mai wondered if they'd be kicked out, but Director Himeno Fumi had assured the Tokiha siblings that their scholarship would see the both of them through high school graduation.

"Heeeh. Well look at you, Mikoto," came an amused voice from the door. "You actually look more like a normal girl than a wild animal for once. Almost even respectable!"

Mai and Mikoto looked up and saw their other roommate, Kuga Natsuki, smirking at them from the door Mikoto had all but kicked in.

Mai couldn't help but notice that Natsuki's smirk was noticeably nicer than it used to be when they had first met. Given everything they'd gone through together, the three had become close friends, with Natsuki even moving in with Mai and Mikoto for several weeks while Fuuka Academy and its dorms (and parts of Fuuka Town, for that matter) were being rebuilt in the aftermath of the Hime Star Festival. The dark haired biker's presence in their dorm room had been much more welcome than not by Mai. She appreciated all those times Natsuki had 'babysat' Mikoto, allowing Mai time to spend with Tate Yuuichi (and on a couple of rare occasions, Kanzaki Reito too). She'd miss Natsuki when she moved out, but maybe she could still convince her to babysit, assuming the biker's new roommate wasn't going to be as much of a handful as Mikoto.

Not catching the backhandedness of that compliment, Mikoto only 'umphed!' happily with Natsuki's assessment, putting her hands on her hips. Mai caught it though, and laughed. "Hey, at least she wears the full uniform like a respectable girl, unlike some hoody wearing truants who live here! You're lucky you're not actually repeating the 10th grade alongside Mikoto, Natsuki."

The dark haired girl cringed dramatically; it was always so easy to press her buttons. "Stop reminding me. I just got out of my last makeup lesson. I can't believe I had to spent almost all of spring break in remedial!"

Turning back towards the kitchen, Mai grabbed some bowls from the cupboard. "Well, you both got back with perfect timing; I just finished making lunch."

"Ramen?" Mikoto cried hopefully, stars and hearts in her eyes.

"Your very favourite," the red headed chef affirmed.

The three sat down at the coffee table, Mikoto digging in before the bowl had even met the table surface while Mai tossed Natsuki a familiar bottle of white condiment before the long haired girl could ask for it. Natsuki sighed happily as she doused her ramen with a (not-so) healthy amount of mayo. "Aw man, excellent food and great service. I'm gonna miss living here!" There was more than a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

"Well, there's some things I won't be missing," Mai replied, grinning. "Three of us in this tiny space was a bit much, even if Mikoto _doesn't_ sleep in her own bed. I'm so glad they've finished with the repairs to the girls' dormitories. If I had to share this bathroom with you one more semester...!" She trailed off. _There'd be bloodshed!_ "Who'd have thought that Kuga Natsuki was such a princess in the morning?"

Natsuki's face colored a bright red, as Mai knew it would. While she sputtered for a retort, Mai continued, her grin now a kinder smile. "But, anyway, since you're only moving a couple floors up, you can just drop by for food whenever. Ahhh, but bring money; I can't afford a freeloader."

Her face still somewhat pink, Natsuki stopped trying to come up with a retort and merely gave the redhead a grumpy look. Her mood greatly improved as they ate though, and soon lunch was over. The three friends sat back with happy full stomachs.

"Don't blame me when I take you up on your offer. That really hit the spot," Natsuki sighed before becoming silent, satiated.

Mikoto, also finished with her meal, promptly curled up like a cat, resting her head on Mai's lap, and went to sleep. Mai noted absently that the red bow formerly around the girl's neck was, true to expectation, gone. Stroking the top of Mikoto's head absently, Mai looked over at Natsuki and noticed that the long haired girl was looking about the room they shared with a pensive, thoughtful expression on her face. It was an expression Mai wouldn't have thought Natsuki was capable of once upon a time, until their friendship had deepened. Natsuki always tried to hide any hints of delicacy and vulnerability; that she could now let her guard down enough to not even think to hide this particular face anymore suggested to Mai that Natsuki's comments had less to do with lunch, and more as commentary over her last several weeks in Mai & Mikoto's company.

Natsuki had spent so many years of her life caught up in the conspiracy of the Hime Star that she was a bit lost as to what to do with herself now that she was a normal girl like everyone else. Mai & Mikoto's place had turned out to be the safest, most nurturing place for her to figure that out, for all the complex and heavy personal issues the red head and the wild child had of their own. Between Mai's motherly nature, and Mikoto's antics, some semblance of the day-to-day normalcy and laughter most high school students took for granted had started to grow roots in Natsuki's heart.

There was really only one other place Natsuki might have stayed the last few weeks that could have _potentially_ been better and healthier for her in the long run, but she really hadn't been ready for the consequences of moving in with Fujino Shizuru, as she had eventually been able to confide in Mai.

Mai couldn't help but worry for her friend on that front. While the frightful side of President Fujino that had reared its terrifying head during the Festival was conspicuously absent these days, Mai wasn't sure if that was because that side had been driven out entirely or simply hidden itself. And, for all that Natsuki had vehemently defended Shizuru when the President had come up in recent conversation amongst the former Hime, Mai was sure that not even Natsuki herself was entirely sure what to make of Shizuru...

Still, in Mai's heart of hearts, she wasn't really able to hold it all against the other girl. They'd all done some things they wanted to take back, and Shizuru was still undoubtedly held in high regard by the person who's regard mattered the most. Besides, the President hadn't actually done anything against Mai herself, and anyone who was working as hard as Shizuru was to rebuild the school couldn't be all bad, right?

"So when do you have to move into your new room?" Mai asked softly. It was probably better to focus on the future than dwell on the past at this point.

Her question prompted Natsuki to close her eyes, and for a moment, there was an expression of regret-tinged nostalgia on the pretty girl's face before she opened her eyes again and shrugged with disinterest Mai knew to be feigned. "Whenever. But, probably, before the new semester starts."

"There's still a couple of days, then. The move shouldn't be too bad; you don't have too much stuff. Well, except for your lingerie collection." Mai giggled. "How do you intend to explain that one to your new roommate? Honestly, Natsuki, if you're luck, she'll just think it's ridiculous. If you're not lucky, you'll be branded a complete perv."

Natsuki threatened to turn pink again. (_She's just so easy_, Mai thought). "Well, if she knows what's good for her, she'll stay out of my business," the long haired girl replied gruffly. "I'm her senior, and she's my underclassman, after all."

"That might be hard when your 'business' overflows from all the drawer and closet space." Mai enjoyed another chuckle at Natsuki's expense. "So do you know who it's gonna be yet?"

"Yeah, she's a tenth grader not coming up through Fuuka's junior high. She's got a weird name. Himemiya Anty or Anthy or something like that."

* * *

Fujino Shizuru, outgoing Student Council President of Fuuka Academy, knocked on the door of Director Himeno Fumi's office and opened it when she heard the Director bid her come in. Despite her holding the office for several weeks now, it was still a little jarring for Shizuru to see Fumi in business attire rather than a maid uniform, and Shizuru wondered, not for the first time, when she would become accustomed to seeing Fumi holding the reigns rather than Kazahana Mashiro.

Director Himeno had faced not a small amount of challenge when she had stepped up. For all that she looked like an 11 year old girl, Director Kazahana was a respected figure in Fuuka's business and conference board rooms, while Himeno Fumi had maintained a public façade of being but her simple maid. As it turned out, Himeno Fumi was an even better "public servant" than she was a personal servant (which was _really_ saying something). Where Fuuka should have completely folded between the physical devastation to the school and the financial constraints it had suffered due to the pulling of the SEARS Foundation's support while the First District was still roiled in utter chaos, somehow, the school was still standing, its operations still running and its students and staff none the wiser as to just how _close_ things had gotten to _really bad_.

That 'somehow' was actually due in not-a-small-part to Director Himeno knowing to tap Shizuru for help. As the outgoing Student Council President, it would have been understandable to all if Shizuru had wiped her hands clean of the debacle and let the new student council handle it.

Instead, the Student Council President and Vice President had pushed up their sleeves and tackled the school's problems head on with such solemn responsibility that even Suzushiro Haruka could not find fault with them, and she'd thought them nothing but tea-drinking slackers since the beginning of her tenure. The indomitable blond had remarked that it was a pity her peers hadn't applied themselves so completely and devotedly from the beginning; maybe such misfortune wouldn't have even befallen Fuuka in the first place! Shizuru and Reito had shared an awkward look when Haruka had said this; Haruka hadn't known just how deeply her casual remark had cut them, for each was keenly aware just how much of Fuuka's dire constraints were caused by their direct actions alone during the Festival.

It was a debt neither thought they could ever repay, though they had to try. Shizuru had it worse than Reito. He had barely been in control of his own actions, his mind so dominated by the Obsidian Lord. She could not quite claim the same for herself.

In a way, Shizuru was glad that the sheer mountain of work to do was so massive that even _she_ had had to resort to using concealer for the dark circles under her eyes. She'd had so little sleep in the last few weeks that her mind was mostly mush by the end of the day, incapable of higher thought. The few times she saw Natsuki, she was so tired and out-of-it that sleep-addled giddiness and old habits kicked in and she reverted to the role of so-over-the-top-flirty-and-touchy-she-had-to-be-joking-and-therefore-harmless friend. The look Natsuki had given her the first time this happened was multifaceted – confusion, exasperation, disappointment, relief – there had been so many emotions warring on her face. Ultimately, though, Natsuki had settled on being exasperated, had sputtered out an admonishing, "S-Shizuru!" and only the crimson-eyed girl herself had noticed the relief evident in the exasperation.

Her silliness had given them a welcome reprieve from actually having to deal with what was between them, though it was clear to both that the other knew that this was temporary. They'd have to deal with it eventually – the sooner the better. _After this deal_, Shizuru promised herself,_ we'll talk. We'll really talk. After this deal._

"Ah, Fujino-san, thank you for coming." Director Himeno gave Shizuru a friendly smile as she came out from behind her impressive mahogany desk filled with papers and grabbed her purse from a lavish coatrack. She calmly walked over to Shizuru, her heels making no sound against the lush carpets. "Ready to go?"

"I am," Shizuru replied.

After she had helped to contract Suzushiro Construction to the physical rebuilding of Fuuka at a _ridiculously_ low bid (Haruka herself still hadn't realized that it hadn't actually been her family's idea to be so generous), Director Himeno had then asked Shizuru to help secure one last final replacement investor for the school. While Fuuka could not be quite as frivolous as when SEARS wrote the cheques, with one more investor, things would likely go as far back to 'normal' as it ever would.

The two took a little bit of time to walk over to Fuuka University. While the sprawling University grounds were still a part of Fuuka Acadamy, it was a bit further away from where the administration, high school, junior high and primary schools and dormitories were clustered.

They were due to meet one Arisugawa Juri in one of the fitness facilities at Fuuka University.

The Arisugawa zaibatsu had been an unusual conglomerate to approach as a potential investor for Fuuka, but through meticulous research and inspired analysis, Shizuru had realized that the company was actually poised to become a player in the business of private education and that the person most likely to sign on the dotted line was actually the second daughter of the illustrious clan as opposed to the current clan leaders or named successor.

Arisugawa Juri, now in her early thirties, had brought national pride to Japan when she won bronze and then silver in fencing in back-to-back Olympics a few years ago. She was also a semi-retired but still known fashion model whom had helped popularize the attractiveness of healthy athletic women over the skeleton drug-addict look that had previously dominated Europe's runways. As a part owner in a label helmed by fashion world darling Daidouji Tomoyo, Juri had also experienced a little bit of business success as well.

None of this would have made Arisugawa Juri a likely candidate to invest in Fuuka Academy save for Shizuru's deeper analysis which led her to deduce that based on Juri's personality and temperament, there was no way a mere silver metal would satisfy the woman as a legacy.

They found Juri on the second level of Fuuka University's main gym where the running track was, leaning on the railing and looking down at the hardwood courts beneath her. Her orange hair was curled but unbound, and she wore large sunglasses that hid most of her face. Her stylish blazer had a distinctly militaristic flair about it and she noticed when Shizuru and Director Himeno approached her.

"Arisugawa-dono, welcome to Fuuka Academy," Fumi said warmly, bowing respectfully. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

"Ah, gokigenyou, Director Himeno. Thank you for indulging me in my request." Straightening up and taking her sunglasses off, she nodded politely to Fumi in greeting but her sharp marine eyes remained on Shizuru's ruby hued ones.

"Not at all, we are very pleased that you would want to come see the campus personally," Fumi replied smoothly. "After all, we are hoping that you will be spending a lot of time here. I thought it might be a good idea to introduce our Student Council President of Fuuka High School to you. This is Fujino Shizuru – one of the key administrators of Fuuka's High School. We're lucky that she's decided to attend Fuuka University when the new semester starts; hopefully she'll agree to pop back over periodically and impart her wisdom on the new student council."

Shizuru smiled pleasantly as she bowed respectfully to the older woman, all the time catching the appraising glint in Juri's eyes and feeling amused and maybe even a little flattered by the nature of that appraisal; Juri had come out in the public eye a couple years back, an unusual but not entirely unexpected announcement to most who knew her. "It's nice to meet you, Arisugawa-sama."

"You as well, Fujino-kun," Juri replied, smiling. "I understand from Director Himeno that you were very involved in this entire process. It's unusual to see one so young so capable." She smirked. "I too was on the student council in my high school days, but I seem to recall spending most of our time messing around and playing cruel games on each other."

"Fuuka's philosophy allows its students to be all that they want to be," Shizuru responded evenly. "We are run by the students, for the students, after all. To have that freedom means to shoulder that responsibility and Fuuka is an attractively safe environment for one to learn the ropes."

"Yes, and such a philosophy certainly will attract the type of student I am most interested in. The bold. The best." Juri remarked. She looked down at the gym where several games of volleyball were in session. "I have hope that I can train a successor here, someone to claim gold for Japan where I failed to."

And with those words, Shizuru traded a discrete glance with Fumi, feeling satisfaction warm her belly. After receiving and contemplating the proposal, Juri had returned it with a note that she could potentially be interested if Fuuka could meet a few very key and specific demands; one was a seat on the board of directors; two was that she be able to implement a fencing program from which children in primary school through university were able to join. All of this was contingent on Juri finding the training facilities up to her standards.

The three women spent the next several hours touring the various facilities across Fuuka Acadamy's lands, but from the fencing champion's early words, Shizuru was quite sure that the school had indeed proven up to snuff. There were only formalities left now.

_Finally,_ Shizuru thought, _now I'll be able to spend some time with Natsuki_.

The thought filled her with anticipation and nervousness.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

That Utena might have been with child when she left Ohtori is an idea I remember explored by a couple different authors in a couple of different fics before KannaMiko and MaiHime came out, so the idea that Chikane could be her child – a mixture of heroic and despotic characteristics she inherited from parents not entirely human, was an idea that's been with me from the first time I watched the end of KannaMiko. This became the basic idea for an earlier fic of mine called Prince, but it was too ambitious an idea for me at the time to complete. Hopefully, I've got a bit more life under my belt now to pull this off. :)

Daidouji Tomoyo is from Card Captor Sakura, who will be mentioned here or there but won't be a big part of this fic. That Tomoyo might be acquaintances with Juri was from another set of crack fics I once wrote similar in setup but completely different in theme and feel from Revolutions.

Also, Guubear and I apparently have very different definitions of cyberstalking. ^_^;;

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Damn it Google! You've betrayed me!

UTENA: Chikane, sweetheart, we need to talk.

CHIKANE: Sure, what's up, Mom?

UTENA: Now, please don't get angry, I wasn't trying to spy on you or anything, but today by complete accident, I discovered how to look up internet search histories, and, um, I'm a bit worried.

CHIKANE: [Massively sweatdropping] Uh-oh.

UTENA: Sweetie, this obsession you have really isn't healthy and what you're doing is harassment. You could get in a lot of trouble if that young woman decides to go to the legal system. What's going on?

CHIKANE: ... I'm really sorry, Mom, but I'm going to be sharing fic-space with Fujino Shizuru soon, and I really wanted to maintain some sort of an edge over her. I mean, I only won that first Sai-Yuri popularity contest over her by a very slim margin, and now this fic's being posted on the MH board rather than the KnM board and I just really couldn't stand it if that bubuzuke-onna let that go straight to her head.

UTENA: [Sighs] Honestly, Chikane, I think it might have been healthier when you were just obsessing over Himeko...

* * *

OMAKE II: Aging not-so-gracefully

[JURI and UTENA are sitting at a coffee table. JURI is absolutely glowering at UTENA]

JURI: Damn it, this isn't fair.

UTENA: [Sweatdrops] Oh? Whatever do you mean?

JURI: [Slams both hands on the table] Look, we're _both_ supposed to be a lot older than the main cast is; why have YOU not aged a day?!

UTENA: [Sweatdrops multiply]. Aaah, I think that's supposed to be a plot point. But, if it makes you feel any better, Juri-sempai, you could have passed for 30 when you were 16. I mean, really, your taste in jewelry and formal wear was really... uh... old school.

JURI: [Hangs her head] You are not helping.

* * *

OMAKE III: Company's A-Coming!

[The entire MAI HIME cast is holding onto brooms and mops and buckets and frantically cleaning every single piece of the scenery.]

NATSUKI: [Polishing a statue of MASHIRO] Mou! I have had enough of this [Throws towel down] Why the hell do we have to make everything so sparkling clean anyway? I hate cleaning!

SHIZURU: [With deep circles under her eyes] Natsuki! Quickly! Pick up your broom! Before Fumi sees you!

[It is too late. A massive monster of PINK HAIRED DOOM appears and gets right up in NATSUKI'S FACE.]

FUMI: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, KUGA-SAN! GET BACK TO WORK!

NATSUKI: Ahh! [Hurriedly picks up her towel and continues polishing] Okay, okay! [FUMI goes away] Geez, what's her problem?

SHIZURU: Fumi's been a bit on edge since Fuuka is going to be hosting visitors from two other high profile yuri series. She really doesn't want to be embarrassed, and with her background as a maid, everything's got to be spick and span. Why do you think I've been so busy lately? The Student Council's been on cleaning duty for weeks!


	3. Chp 2 - The Underwear Chapter

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 2

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 8, 2013 – January 19, 2013

Word Count: Approx 6,200

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

[MaiHime][KannaMiko][Utena] "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between Chikane, Shizuru, Natsuki, Utena and others.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

*FIFTEEN YEARS AGO*

_A broken Prince walked up to a large barrier where the Demon of Despair he had vanquished many lifetimes ago was sealed. Large chains and paper wards with potent seals on them ensured that the Eight-Headed Demon remained bound, once again, in obedience. It had experienced a brief taste of freedom recently, too brief a taste, before It was bound by chain and ward once again, as It had been for so many years now, passing by the time in silent, scheming slumber and madness. It cracked open a single glowing eye on one of Its many heads as the broken Prince approached. His reflection, tall and erect, wearing the whitest of fine suits, was distorted in the Demon's eyes, His dark hands and face now the deepest of black voids. The Demon noticed that the sparkle of gallantry that once made Him blinding to all who beheld Him was conspicuously absent. The Demon closed Its eye once again. _

_"The years have not been kind to you, Prince." It intoned, though Its monstrous mouth never moved, nor any noise uttered from Its tongue. There was regret in Its voice, sincere regret, at seeing the pitiful form that Its old nemesis now held._

_"I have a proposition for you," replied He, with no greeting save for the false smile that seemed to perpetually light His face these days. His tone was gamely, and He leaned against a nonexistent support in front of the bound Demon casually, as though settling in for a friendly chat._

_"A proposition?" The Demon echoed, snorting dispassionately. "I believe the term you are looking for, is 'a favor'. Even I felt the revolution pass, from all the way down here, and it has left you behind. What are you now? Nothing but a ghost, nothing but a shell. You are empty, and I have felt your despair take over you. You belong to me now."_

_"And you are disappointed."_

_The Demon did not dignify the statement with an immediate reply. "How many millennia has it been since you first sealed me here? How many times have I battled you since, Ame no Murakumo? This time... this time, I would have crushed you! Crushed the archetypal Prince, and all that he stood for! But I never got the chance now, did I, for a mere slip of a girl has stolen the pleasure from me. She has left you but a husk, already mine. You are no longer the Prince. You are nothing, and so you belong to me." _

_"... will you seek vengeance against the one who robbed you?"_

_The Demon gave a short bark of harsh laughter. "Oh, make no mistake. When I am free again, I will drown her in despair, along with the rest of the world. I may have underestimated her this time, but not next time, no. Into me, I will seep the one who opened the Gate to the Prince. I will prove that the darkness of my despair cannot be won against. I will destroy her. I will pluck her limbs apart, one by one, and scatter them over the four corners of the earth. I will savor her screams, and grind her bones between my teeth... but she will not bring me satisfaction. For though she may be the one to inherit the title of Prince, she is not __**you**__." _

_The Demon stopped speaking, simmering, seething as It regarded Him, this pitiful once-Prince who could not even hold onto His own stature long enough to give It the satisfaction of crushing Him._

_"She carries my child." The Prince, the Hero, the Savior - He had known so many names - could not help but smile once more, though this one was markedly more sincere, and nasty, than all His previous. He felt genuinely pleased with the Demon's reaction of stunned silence. Confidence, that which had eluded Him for so long that it felt slightly uncomfortable (though He did not let the Demon know that), dared Him to continue speaking. "A baby girl, borne of two princes. Pure. Innocent. She is me - my blood, my flesh. She is all that is left of me." _

_He walked back and forth in front of the Demon as He spoke, as though His physical steps would allow His words to resonate more clearly. Now, He neatly clicked His heels together, and turned to regard the Demon once more. His eyes were half hooded, sly, challenging. _

_"... could you break her?"_

_"Of course I could break her," the Demon sneered again. "In the end, there will be only me, for I break __**everyone**__! Even those damnable Miko. Even you, if not for that blasted Witch, even you would have broken before me!"_

_He smiled coyly. "You couldn't break the Lunar Priestess."_

_The Demon smoldered in impotent fury at the trite comment. "Do not be mistaken," It said, slowly, dangerously. "The Miko of the Moon was mine, through and through. She was broken. It was simply that the Miko of the Sun put her back together again."_

_"That seems like splitting hairs to me," He chuckled at the Demon's expense while It glowered. "Mah, mah, calm down. I don't mean to insult you. In any case, would it give you satisfaction? To destroy my line? To destroy all that remains of me?"_

_There was silence for a moment. Finally, the Demon rumbled, "at this point, it would have to suffice."_

_His smile broadened. "Well then, allow me to repeat myself: 'I have a proposition for you.'" _

_The ground vibrated with the Demon's annoyance, but Its attention was gained. "Fine. Speak then, Prince- no, to barter with me, you are not the Prince anymore. What do you call yourself these days?"_

_He paused for a moment as He considered this. Finally, He chuckled. "I suppose you may call me, the End of the World."_

* * *

"Shizuru! What are you doing here?" Natsuki was surprised and pleased when the ruby eyed older girl showed up at her door (well, Mai & Mikoto's door, really). It was her moving day and she hadn't expected Shizuru to show up at all, knowing how busy the student council President was.

"My meetings finished so I came to help, of course," Shizuru replied easily enough with a ready smile.

Natsuki opened and closed her mouth a couple of times to come up with some reasons to excuse the other girl but found that she couldn't find any. Instead, she looked down at Shizuru's attire dubiously. In direct contrast to the old jeans and t-shirt Natsuki had on, the other girl was still in her uniform, skirt, and bone-white blazer. It was pretty obvious Shizuru had come straight from her meetings. "You didn't have to," Natsuki said softly, not quite succeeding in hiding the appreciation from her voice. "Come on, I'll grab you an old shirt or something."

They went deeper into the dorm room where Mai and Mikoto were busily taping up a few last boxes. The red head and wild child greeted Shizuru when she entered and Natsuki fished an old sweater out from one of the boxes so Shizuru could put something on over her school clothes. Shizuru took the offered sweater and happily inhaled its scent (much to Natsuki's embarrassment and Mai's chortling) before doffing her blazer.

It took them several short trips, but soon they got Natsuki's stuff to her new dorm room two floors up from Mai & Mikoto's where they started to help her unpack as well, at least, until Mikoto's antics got her and Mai booted out.

"Hahahaha! Mai! Look!" Inevitably, Mikoto had made it into Natsuki's lingerie collection and was sitting in a pool of her underwear with lacy things dangling from every possible limb, the box they'd been stored in emptied over her head. Natsuki's left eyebrow began to twitch spastically, and she was about to go give Mikoto a whollop but Shizuru beat her to the smaller girl.

Rather than reprimanding the wild child however, Shizuru simply picked the white and baby-blue laced push-up off of one of Mikoto's's ears and gazed at it fondly. "Ara, Natsuki! Do you remember this one? I haven't seen it in so long!" Her ruby eyes glinted playfully. "You never wear half of the things you buy. Come now, give us a show-!"

"Aaah, that's it, I can finish the rest of the unpacking!" Practically swiping the bra out of Shizuru's fingers, Natsuki harrumphed mightily, cutting off the rest of Shizuru's request before anyone else could chime in. Picking Mikoto up by the scruff of her neck in her other hand, Natsuki escorted the small girl to the front door. "Out!"

"Aaah, hai, we'll catch up with you later." Laughing, Mai accepted Mikoto from Natsuki like a kitten, still by the scruff of her neck. Her eyes darted towards where Shizuru was standing quickly before she looked back at Natsuki and gave her a wink as she left.

That wink brought a bit of heat to Natsuki's cheeks as she could almost feel words of encouragement coming from it: _Good luck!_ Silently staying by the open front door, Natsuki felt slightly off balance as she realized that this was going to be one of the very few times she'd been alone with Shizuru ever since... since the festival.

_Really? Has it been that long?_ Natsuki had a hard time believing it. Surely she'd been alone with Shizuru since the craziness, hadn't she? But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that between Shizuru's work and her make up lessons, they really _hadn't_ seen each other very much at all. When they had, they'd been in the company of the other former Hime during karaoke, or with Sakamoto-sensei that other time. Once, Shizuru had tried to come by later at night to help Natsuki with her studies, but she had been so exhausted that she had soon fallen asleep instead.

Natsuki felt her heart speed up a little bit and she cautiously looked over her shoulder at Shizuru. The chestnut haired girl was busy piling a bunch of Natsuki's shirts together to put into a drawer with a quiet but obvious fondness in her actions. As she was doing so, Natsuki thought there was something different about the Shizuru in front of her from the Shizuru in her memory.

_She's tired,_ Natsuki realized after a moment. A_re those bags under her eyes? _S_he's really been running around a lot the last few weeks. _Natsuki couldn't help but feel her heart squeeze a little – with guilt, with joy, she wasn't sure, and worse yet, wasn't sure why she felt that way – that despite how worn out Shizuru must have been, as soon as she had a moment's downtime, she came to see her.

Sensing that she was being watched, Shizuru looked over at Natsuki and cocked her head to the side. "Ara, did Natsuki mean for me to leave as well?" She asked, walking over to her.

Natsuki's face got a little warmer. "N-no," she said quickly. "You can stay, Shizuru." She paused. "Um, that is, I'd like it if you stayed."

Shizuru's smile deepened, even as the amused twinkling in her eyes softened. Wordlessly, she walked right up to Natsuki, causing the dark haired girl to take one step back, and then lean in towards her. Natsuki's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected boldness of the other girl's actions as their faces hovered close to each other.

And then Shizuru's lips parted, turning her knowing smile into a triumphant grin as Natsuki felt the undergarment she'd still been holding in one hand gently taken away from her. Shizuru leaned back and held the bra up in front of Natsuki's nose. "Ara, so Natsuki really will model this cute set for me?"

The dark haired girl blinked twice in incomprehension before her face twisted into one of embarrassment. Quickly swiping her bra back, she sniffed icily as she stalked around Shizuru. "Mou, I can't believe you sometimes, Shizuru. If you're gonna be a pain, then you can leave too."

"Aaah, then in that case, I promise to be good." Shizuru chuckled as she followed after Natsuki, picking up another discarded piece of underwear. She looked at them with a chuckle and stretched the low-rise pink cotton-lace T-back panties in between her two index fingers, holding them up in front of her face. "Well, for now anyway."

Feeling a bulging aneurysm about her temple, Natsuki grit her teeth as she narrowed her eyes at Shizuru dangerously, summoning every ounce of self-control she could to not fall for the taunt. But then Shizuru wiggled her fingers back and forth, making the panties dance a sexy jiggle, and whatever self-control Natsuki had mustered went flying out a nearby window.

With what could almost be termed a war cry, Natsuki pounced at Shizuru for the liberty of her (very private) property, but the older girl was able to simply sidestep the attack. She wasn't able to avoid Natsuki's unexpected follow up however, as the dark haired girl lashed a leg around and tripped the upright girl down onto the floor.

Amidst shrieks and cries of laughter and torture, they tried to wrestle the other to the ground to claim the prize. Natsuki almost won too, until Shizuru started fighting dirty, her fingers going for Natuki's most ticklish areas. Natsuki tried valiantly to escape, but it was a lost cause, her body pinned under Shizuru's own.

"St-! Stop! HIII! Hhaha! Stop it! Shiruzu!" Natsuki cried, gasping for her breath, even as she laughed. "Alright! You win, I give! I give!"

Hearing the dark haired girl's surrender, Shizuru gradually stopped her attacks, though she still held Natsuki's wrists down, mindful of the possibility of sneak retribution. Her eyes danced with mischief as she looked down at Natsuki beneath her, and Natsuki smiled as she looked back up at the older girl, her wounded pride soothed by the fact that at least now Shizuru looked a little less tired from before.

_That's better_, Natsuki wanted to say, even opened her mouth to say, but a startled sound interrupted her.

"Oh."

Both Natsuki and Shizuru blinked. It took them a moment to realize that neither had made the sound. Looking towards the source of the sound, they saw a pretty girl with long blue-black hair standing in the still-open doorway with wide, wide blue-green eyes. She was wearing a jacket and collared shirt and a knee length skirt with a large duffle bag on one shoulder. Her other hand pulled a rolling luggage behind her.

Very slowly, she turned her head to look at the numbers on the front of the door, as if to confirm that they were the right ones, before equally slowly turning her back to look at Shizuru still straddling Natsuki on the floor amidst an explosion of undergarments all over the place. As she blinked a couple more times at the two girls on the floor, Natsuki felt her entire body threaten to spontaneously combust.

"Hmm. Well now. I appear to be interrupting. Forgive me. I'll come back later." With the driest voice Natsuki had heard in recent memory, the pretty girl gave a quick bow of apology and stepped back into the hallway, closing the door behind her with a firm click.

Natsuki and Shizuru stared at the now closed door for a moment longer before turning to look back at one another.

"Who was that?" Shizuru asked.

_Oh. My. God. _"I think," Natsuki swallowed, twitching spastically in an effort to keep the embarrassment running rampant through her veins from popping every single last one of her blood vessels, "that was supposed to be my roommate."

"Oh." Shizuru considered this. Seeing that her skirt had flipped up around her waist at some point during their play, she flipped it back down as casually as possible. "She's pretty."

Something inside her broke and Mt. Natsuki erupted. She wished she had a handy halisen or giant mallet or something. "Is that really all you can say?!"

* * *

Chikane stared at the wooden door she had just closed and stared at the numbers affixed to it one more time to make sure that this, indeed, was supposed to be her room for her next three years in High School.

It was.

She frowned as she tried to remember her first time through highschool. _Were high school students really so... open... these days?_ Then she remembered some of her mother's students' behavior. _They probably are._ She certainly didn't remember high school being like that at Ototachibana Acadamy, but she'd lived at home that life, rather than in the dorms. Suddenly, thoughts of what Himeko and her roommate (_what was her name? Saotome? Saotome Makoto. Right_) might have been up to when they had shared a room entered into her mind's eye, and Chikane's heart clenched a little bit with jealousy.

_Stop it, you're being silly._ She scowled herself as she turned away, willing the slight blush on her cheeks to die down. Studying the skies for a moment as she pondered what to do, she put her heavy duffle bag on top of her rolling suitcase and then stuck her hands in her pockets as she thought about where she could go for the next little while. _Would an hour be enough time? Two? Surely they wouldn't last all day?_

Maybe she could go to the library and use one of the computers. Himeko hasn't involved with anything newsworthy lately, not even on the most obsessive fashion blogs, but one never really knew what things could turn up.

Just as she was about to go, her dorm room door opened, and a tall, chestnut haired girl with ruby eyes looked out at her. Chikane recognized her as the 'one on top' from a moment ago. Her eyes flickered past the girl into the room, and Chikane could see the other girl (_the bottom_) was frantically throwing her weight against a closet door that looked like it wanted to explode. None of the underwear previously littered across the room was in sight.

"Ara, sorry about that," the chestnut haired girl said cheerfully. "You must be Natsuki's roommate? Don't go, we were just playing around. Please, come in. After all, this is your room too now." She smiled winningly.

_Her hair's the same color as Himeko's, _Chikane noted absently._ And judging from her accent, she's from Kyoto._ _For someone who's just been walked in on, she's remarkably composed_. Quickly scanning the girl over, she noted that she seemed a little familiar, though off the top of her head, she couldn't quite place her. From the casual way she was able to project complete ease and confidence in a situation which should have instead prompted humility, Chikane decided that this person might be someone of significance to Fuuka Academy, and that she had best be polite and respectful to her. Remembering her manners, Chikane returned the smile, bowing politely. "In that case, if you're sure about that, then please excuse me." Grabbing her things, she walked into the room while the chestnut haired girl closed the door behind her.

Seeming to have the closet under control, the other dark haired girl slowly backed away from it, eyeing it pleadingly. The closet rumbled ominously, but held for now. Satisfied, she then turned to face Chikane and offered her a half-cringe, half-smile.

_Hmm,_ Chikane noted. _This one feels embarrassment._

"Hey. I'm Kuga Natsuki. Second year. You must be Himemiya Anthy, right?"

Chikane bowed lightly in greeting. "Yes, I'm Himemiya Anthy, first year. Nice to meet you, Kuga-sempai."

"Ah, Natsuki is fine," Natsuki replied quickly.

Chikane thought about this for a moment. Given the circumstances she had first met her upperclassman, maybe it would be better to dispense with formalities. "Well then, Natsuki-sempai, please, call me Chikane." She expected the confused expression her senior gave her and smiled in explanation, "yes, I know, it's strange, but while Anthy is my first name on paper, I've never gone by it, ever. Please, I'd much prefer Chikane."

Natsuki traded a quick look with the chestnut haired girl (a look Chikane did not miss), and then shrugged. "Um. Okay, if that's what you want, Chikane."

Chikane looked over at the chestnut haired girl expectantly who was still smiling serenely. "Ara, where are my manners. My name is Fujino Shizuru. I graduated from Fuuka High school last semester, and will be going to Fuuka University. I was just visiting Natsuki." Shizuru paused for a second. "Since you are on a first name basis with Natsuki already, then you can call me Shizuru too, if you want."

"Oh, no," Chikane replied quickly. Having heard the name, she quickly realized who the chestnut hair girl was and where she'd seen her; she was on all of Fuuka Academy's promotional materials to prospective students. "It would be far too presumptuous of me to address our Student Council President in such a casual manner."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow appraisingly for a moment before she smiled. _Fascinating_, Chikane thought. She could feel a little bit of a smirk of intrigue behind that smile.

"Ara, well, if that is how you feel then who am I to push familiarity onto you. Very well, Himemiya-san. Perhaps one day you will feel more freely around me." She winked over at Natsuki. "You'll be seeing quite a bit of me, I imagine."

"Hopefully not in more ways than one?"

Both older girls blinked again. And then Natsuki started to get flustered while Shizuru simply chuckled.

"Aah, you've got it wrong!" Natsuki cried, sputtering and waving her hands wildly about. "About earlier, Shizuru and I were just horsing around! We weren't…! I mean, we're not…!" And then she trailed off somewhat helplessly, her mouth opening and closing as she seemed to regret her not-quite-words, looking over at chestnut haired girl desperately.

For her part, Shizuru simply continued to smile, though Chikane thought she detected a hint of a complex feeling within those ruby depths. The student council President came to Natsuki's verbal rescue. "We really were just having a bit of innocent fun while putting away Natsuki's things. She just moved in too, you know. So, no, you won't be seeing so much of me again," she considered for a moment, her lips curling further upwards. "Well, at least, not without dinner first."

Now it was Chikane's turn to blink again as she considered the motivation behind the older girl's flirty words. _Huh. Am I being tested here?_ Chikane decided that she probably was. After all, her comments upon coming across the pair's compromising position, had actually disclosed a lot about herself, and what biases influenced her assumptions. _Hmm. She's good. _Chikane thought, as she eyed the older girl with intrigue and decided to play along. "Just one dinner?"

Something dangerous glinted in the back of the older girl's eyes as she rose to the challenge. "Ara, and here I thought Himemiya-san was worried about being rude?"

Chikane would have answered except that Natsuki spoke up, her brow furrowed in slight annoyance. "Uh, what are you two talking about?" She asked, her emerald eyes darting back and forth between them, narrowing her eyes disapprovingly at the older girl.

But before either the 10th grader or the President could answer right away there came a small 'chu?' of inquiry from Chikane's duffle bag. Surprised, all three sets of human eyes in the room look towards the bag sitting atop the luggage and saw a small form suddenly appear on the side of the bag, as though something on the inside was trying to burst out. The form disappeared and reappeared along the bag until it found the zipper opening and with a triumphant 'chu!', a small, humanoid purple-grey palm sized monkey popped out from the duffle and stood atop of it with her hands on her hips.

"Gah!" Natsuki reacted first, recoiling more in surprise, "what is that thing?!"

Natsuki's jump back however caused her to knock an elbow against the closet she'd been fighting with earlier and with an ominous groan, the doors that were holding back what appeared to be highly pressurized contents gave way. With no further warning, the overstuffed closet burst open, avalanching out the largest and most colorful collection of lingerie Chikane had ever seen. Natsuki only had time to give a dismayed cry before being buried under a plethora of cotton, satin, silk and lace.

Chikane stared at where her roommate had previously been standing in abject disbelief. She looked over at Shizuru, whose face was almost a mirror of her own shocked expression. They stared at each other in disbelief before Chikane snapped out of it first.

Looking over at the amused monkey-mouse, Chikane admonished, "Chu-Chu! You're supposed to be home with Okaa-sama! What are you doing here?"

The monkey-mouse didn't answer Chikane. Instead, she hopped down onto the ground and walked over to the nearest piece of underwear (the same pair of panties Shizuru had used to give Natsuki such grief), gave a 'chu!' of love and started to make a nest.

* * *

Natsuki spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and putting things away with Shizuru and her new roommate – Himemiya Anth, no, Himemiya Chikane. After the initial surprise and confusion caused by Chikane's pet had passed, the younger girl excused herself to step outside and let her mother know the family monkey had stowed away in her luggage.

While Chikane was gone, Natsuki tried to put the lingerie away properly – so that it would actually fit in the closet, but the marmoset was so enamoured by Natsuki's choice in underwear, it (no, she – Chikane had explained that the monkey, Chu-Chu, was female) stubbornly refused to release the few she had in her possession. Shizuru wasn't quite been able to hold back her chuckles as Natsuki tug-of-warred with the small mammal 1/8th her size.

"Oh, give me that!" Natsuki cried, her patience fraying. With one mighty tug, she managed to extract the last pair of panties from the paws of the animal. "Aha!"

Then Chu-Chu started to cry piteously, twin trails of tears warbling down her face.

_Oh, crap. _Natsuki wrinkled her brow uncomfortably. "What are you doing? Are you crying? Ahh, stop it! Don't cry! Wait, can monkeys cry?"

Shizuru picked up the crying primate and stroked her head as comfortingly as possible, trying not to be bothered when the monkey blew her nose on the sleeve of Shizuru's shirt. "Oh, Natsuki, just give the poor thing a pair or two. How can you say no to this face?" They both turned puppy dog eyes onto the brunette, who sputtered indignantly, but ultimately, with a resigned sigh, found herself returning her hard earned garments.

Chu-Chu was overjoyed, burying her face into the soft cloth.

Alas, the peace didn't last. Mai and Mikoto showed up a few minutes later with food.

"Hey, how's the unpacking coming? We brought dinner!" Mai said cheerfully, holding up some plastic bags.

Mikoto mirrored the action, holding her plastic bags out with a massive, pleased grin on her face. "Yakisoba noodles and fried-gasp!" Her mouth opened in shock as she spied the mouse-sized monkey in Shizuru's palm. She dropped her bags in surprise as instinct took over. Mikoto lunged for Chu-Chu, hissing and spitting. If she had hackles, they would have been up. As it was, her braids were standing on end in agitation.

Massive sweatdrops rolled down the back of Chu-Chu's fuzzy monkey head. Self preservation kicked in at exactly that moment as she leapt off of Shizuru's hand just in time to avoid Mikoto's teeth. The mouse-sized monkey frantically tried to put as much distance between herself and the frightening cat girl behind her, but Mikoto was on her tail. Their actions knocked Shizuru over into Natsuki who ended up face first in the closet again, sending clothing and lingerie and hangers flying.

By the time Chikane entered into the room again, Chu-Chu and Mikoto had demolished most of it. She stared incredulously over at Natsuki, who could only hang her head in shame.

It was late into the evening by the time they finished cleaning up and eating dinner, later still into the night by the time Natsuki and Chikane bid adieu to Natsuki's friends (Mikoto having somehow become fast friends with Chu-Chu by the end of the evening) and went to bed.

* * *

A familiar howling woke Natsuki in the middle of the night.

_Duran?_ Natsuki thought sleepily, blurrily blinking her eyes as she thought she heard her Child's lonely cry. Turning over from her back onto her front, she looked up towards the window and could see the beautiful light of the full moon shining into the room through the open curtains. Her eyes followed the light shining into the room and Natsuki's heart gave a skip of surprised as she spied a dark skinned, dark haired figure sitting on Chikane's bed on the other side of the room. Natsuki froze with surprise.

The beautiful, ageless woman sitting on the edge of Chikane's bed wore a simple crimson sleeveless silk tunic that ended mid thigh, tied at the waist with a sash. Long purple hair spilled over her shoulders and down her back in luxurious cascading waves. In her lap, Chu-Chu lay asleep, nuzzling against something white and cotton, and continued to sleep so, even as the woman gently ruffled the fur on the top of the monkey's head. After a while, she turned to look over fondly at Chikane, also fast asleep on her side, facing Natsuki. The dark skin woman brushed Chikane's bangs from her eyes and tucked them behind an ear.

Natsuki swallowed nervously. She was ready to bolt upright in her bed and demand to know who the woman was and how she got into their room, except that the woman then looked directly at her and Natsuki froze again, finding herself trapped inside a magnificent, ancient, emerald gaze.

The woman raised her eyebrow, intrigued, as she studied Natsuki. Finally, after a moment, she cocked her head to the side and asked in an amused voice. "Can you see me?"

Natsuki could only nod silently, still captured by those ancient, ancient eyes.

"Hmm. I wonder how that could be." The dark skin woman considered this for a moment before an expression of understanding dawn on her. "Oh. It must be because Duran misses you so." And then she smiled kindly at Natsuki. "You are lucky. He is such a good boy. Perhaps he will be reunited with you soon."

Natsuki's eyes widened. "What did you say?!" She cried, but didn't cry at the same time.

Natsuki awoke again with a start, bolting upright. She gasped loudly. _What the hell was that?! _She whipped her head over to look at Chikane's bed, but the dark skinned woman was no longer there. In fact, there was no evidence of her ever having been there. Chu-Chu was asleep on Chikane's bed in the exact same spot she would have been in had the woman not been there, still nuzzling against some underwear. Chikane was also still asleep on her side, facing Natsuki.

Natsuki stared at Chikane for the longest time, trying to notice anything different about her.

She couldn't.

_... that was a seriously weird dream,_ Natsuki thought to herself as she laid back down, her eyes still on her roommate. Her heart was still racing, though eventually it calmed down. A twinge of heartache grasped at her heart. She hadn't thought about Duran in a while now.

Natsuki was about to go back to sleep when she sensed Chikane stir on her bed. Chikane's bangs felt out from behind her ear – _her bangs_! Natsuki realized, _her bangs were moved!_ – as she awoke blurrily. It took her a moment to focus her gaze on Natsuki.

"Is something wrong?" Chikane asked, obviously still sleepy.

Natsuki was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say to the other girl she had just met today. Finally deciding that she didn't want to be thought of as a weirdo to someone she had to live with for a while, Natsuki muttered, "... no. I just thought I heard something."

Chikane considered this for a moment, rubbing her eyes. "Hmm. I did too," she admitted. She looked at the window as Natsuki had dreamed she herself had done so, squinting at the brightness of the moon. "A wolf's cry. I didn't realize there were wolves around here."

Natsuki stared at Chikane, stunned. "There aren't." Her heart continued to squeeze. "Not anymore."

Chikane crinkled her brow confusedly at Natsuki, even as she laid back down and snuggled into her blankets again. "... perhaps we can ask the RA about it in the morning..." Within moments, she had fallen asleep once more.

Natsuki continued to stare at Chikane, sleep robbed from her already. Unable to shake the feeling of unease, she curled up under her own covers quietly, even as she stared over at her sleeping roommate.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I seem to remember Natsuki not being a very formal person as, early on, she just told Mai to call her Natsuki.

... crap. I suddenly realize that since Chikane and Shizuru are far smarter than I could ever hope to be, their dialogue is going to be hard to pull off convincingly. -_-;;

I'm preeeeetty sure Chu-chu is a girl, but I can't quite remember where I remembered that from. -_-;;

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I : Using protection

[UTENA is saying goodbye to CHIKANE at the train station before CHIKANE goes off to Fuuka.]

UTENA: ... and remember to call! And floss! And don't give it up on the first date!

CHIKANE: [Sweatdrop] Uh, sure. I'll keep that in mind, Mom. [They hug]

UTENA: Oh! And if someone does strike your fancy, remember to use this! [Hand CHIKANE a box of condoms]

CHIKANE: ... [Sweatdrops massively multiply] Uh, Mom? Not that we really talked about this, but, um, I thought you knew me better than that. I won't be needing these...

UTENA: Sweetheart, I do know you very well. Trust me, you'll be accessorizing before you know it, so, yeah, you're gonna need those.

CHIKANE: [Turns beet red] Oh. Um. Uh. Thanks Mom. [Sticks the condoms into her pocket and hurries onto the train without looking back].

* * *

OMAKE 2: If There Was A Mai Hime Movie And It Was As Whacked As The Utena Movie Was

[On Fuuka school grounds, close to the church, a giant HARUKOW is idly grazing grass. What is a HARUKOW? It is an impressively sized cow with purplely-grey eyes and shoulder length blond hair with short bangs. The hide around its front half is green and somehow contains markings that resemble the cut of an Executive Director's vest. It has a white band with a red marking around one of its front legs. It's middle and rear section resembles a dark grey pleated skirt while its back legs look like its wearing stockings. Cows should never be able to pull off the Zettai Ryouiki "Absolute Territory" troupe, but HARUKOW does so impressively.]

HARUKOW: [Lazily munching on grass] Mooou. [As she inhales, a CHIBI-SIZED GENNAI gets stuck in one of her nostrils.]

HARUKOW: ! [Indignant!] Moooou!

[Suddenly, HARUKA strides onto the scene and boots HARUKOW into the stratosphere]

HARUKA: NO WAY! If there's going to be a Mai Hime Movie, I am NOT going to play a COW!


	4. Chp 3 - Night time Discussions

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 3

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 13, 2013 – January 20, 2013

Word Count: Approx 6,400

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

[MaiHime][KannaMiko][Utena] "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between Chikane, Shizuru, Natsuki, Utena and others.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

Notes and Omake follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

The first few days of the new school year were rough on Natsuki.

During the first week of classes, she missed one day. Then, she missed another. "Mou! Aready, Kuga-san?!" Her homeroom teacher chided her, exasperated. "Did you really like remedial classes over spring break so much that you want to take them over summer break as well?"

_Of course I don't!_ Natsuki fumed silently to herself after she eventually managed to escape her teacher's long and winding sermon. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she'd survived those lessons and she had sworn to herself that she would never put herself in a position to have to fill her vacation time with books and homework ever again. Despite this, Natsuki was so perturbed by the woman in her bedroom (from the first night she'd meet her new roommate), and what that woman had said about Duran, she just couldn't _not_ investigate it, and her old contacts didn't have classes or apparently regular day-time jobs. Not that Yamada had been helpful at all; he'd only been able to confirm to her that the First District hadn't been disbanded, but its activities were still indefinitely suspended.

After a week of fruitlessly digging after anything that could implicate the First District, or the Hime Star, or the Festival yielded no results, Natsuki turned her attention onto her roommate. Suspicious that the younger girl was involved in the conspiracy somehow, Natsuki decided she couldn't just openly ask Chikane about it, for a variety of reasons. If Chikane _was_ involved somehow, Natsuki didn't want the other girl to know about her own knowledge. And if Chikane _wasn't_ involved (and chiefly, she hadn't given Natsuki any indication that she'd even _seen_ the woman), well, Natsuki just didn't want to give someone she had to share close living quarters with reason to think her weird.

So, Natsuki resorted to carrying out discrete surveillance activities over her roommate over the course of several days and learned in the process that Himemiya Chikane was one ridiculously high functioning young woman who kept her day filled with activities from dawn until well past nightfall.

Waking at the crack of dawn, Chikane would make her way down to the archery range, where she had joined the archery club, and was always the first to arrive, often having use of the range for almost half an hour before anyone else showed up.

"Natsuki, what are you doing?" Mikoto asked when she suddenly appeared from out of nowhere to crouch beside Natsuki, who was peering out from behind some bushes just beside the archery range.

"Gah!" Natsuki started. Putting her hand on top of Mikoto's head, she ducked the both of them back down behind the bushes before they could be seen. "Mikoto! What are you doing up so early?" Natsuki hissed at the younger girl.

"I'm on my way to kendo practice," Mikoto replied. Getting the wild child to join Tate's club had been Mai's idea, hoping to drain the girl of some of her abundant energy. "What about you?"

"Me?" Natsuki swallowed, "ah, nothing. Nothing. Hey, have you had breakfast?" She fished a pastry from her pocket she had been saving for later and shoved it in the younger girl's face.

Mikoto happily swallowed the treat whole. "Oooh! Thanks, Natsuki! You're awesome!"

Eventually, Natsuki managed to shoo Mikoto away, but by that time, others in the archery club had showed up, and she had to bail to avoid being seen.

The next day, Natsuki tried to act as casually as possible as she went up onto the roof of the school. Jamming the door to the roof closed behind her to prevent any followers, she then moved to the edge of the building where she pulled out a pair of binoculars and stared through them. It took her a moment, but she could see Chikane seated in the computer classroom, using one of the machines for something. Turning up the power on her binoculars, Natsuki tried to make out what the long haired girl was doing.

"Kuga, what are you doing?" Yuuki Nao asked when she suddenly popped up from out of nowhere to stand beside Natsuki on the roof. Nao was wearing the high school uniform now, having graduated from the 3rd year of junior high by some grace of the god she now served.

"Gah!" Natsuki started. Flailing her arms around in surprise, she almost dropped her binoculars. "Nao! How'd you get up here?!" She asked indignantly.

Nao gave her a queer look. "I was here first," she said flatly. "Before you jammed the door shut." She looked over in the direction Natsuki had pointed her binoculars in. "Don't tell me," Nao dead panned. "You're looking in the locker room windows, aren't you?"

"What?! No! Go away, Nao!" Natsuki gave the redhead a dirty look. "And forget you saw anything!"

Nao only raised an eyebrow, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

"And lock that door behind you!" Natsuki shouted after Nao without turning. She brought her binoculars up to her face again. It took her a while to zero in on the right classroom, and by then, Chikane had moved to a computer outside of her range of vision.

"Che." Natsuki swore. She headed back towards the rooftop door and tried to leave. Her eyebrow twitched when she realized Nao had jammed the door shut from the _other_ side. "DAMN YOU, NAO!" Natsuki roared, pounding on the door. She could practically hear the other girl snickering on the other side.

The day after that, Natsuki tailed Chikane to the band room, keeping almost a full hallway's length between them until the girl disappeared into the room. Natsuki hurried after her, using her hand to gently keep the door from closing completely. Leaving the door just a crack open, Natsuki peered inside silently.

It was in the early evening, and the sun was beginning to set. Chikane silently made her way to where the piano was positioned in the room, and pulled out the bench to sit on it. For a long time, she did nothing except sit at the piano, idly tapping a finger against the closed lid of the keys, apparently lost in thought. Natsuki was beginning to fidget from the inaction when Chikane finally opened the closed lid, and started to play. Natsuki's eyes widened as beautifully melancholic strains from a song she'd never heard before reached her ears.

_Wow. She's good._ The music made Natsuki's heart ache, the strains burdened with so much obvious longing and regret.

"Natsuki, what are you doing?" Mai asked when she suddenly showed up beside Natsuki, apparently drawn by the sound of the music.

"Gah!" Natsuki started. She almost let the door slam closed in her surprise, but (un)luckily managed to shove one finger in through the crack. "Aaowmmmph!" Muffling a cry by biting her lip, Natsuki hastily freed her finger while tears of pain sprung to her eyes without the door slamming. The music continued uninterrupted inside.

Mai was aghast, staring at Natsuki's massively throbbing and weirdly bent finger with wide eyes. "Oh my god are you okamph!" Natsuki clamped her other hand over top of Mai's mouth (keeping the door open with a toe now).

"Shhh!" Natsuki hissed, putting her throbbing finger up to her lips. They quietly stared through the door as Chikane continued to play, evidently so enraptured by the performance that she hadn't noticed their antics. Eventually, the song dwindled down to an end. Chikane continued to sit, poised at the piano, unmoving, the atmosphere in the empty room still seeming to echo the loneliness in her song.

Natsuki shut the door quietly, suddenly feeling like she had seen, and heard, something she wasn't meant to.

"Natsuki, what were you doing?" Mai repeated her question, her voice still a hiss. "And why are we whispering?"

Natsuki wasn't really able to answer Mai.

Later that week, Natsuki got an invite from Shizuru to head over to the diner Mai worked at for a snack after class. Thinking nothing of it, she agreed to go and was surprised to see that Chikane was seated at a table two down from their own, laughing at something a classmate was saying.

It wasn't until Shizuru's gentle, obviously worried voice uttered the same words Mikoto, Nao and Mai had spoken earlier that week, did Natsuki finally realize how far she'd relapsed into unhealthy habits.

"Natsuki, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" Not even realizing she'd been ignoring the other girl until then, Natsuki turned her attention back to Shizuru at the mention of her name, and suddenly found herself lost in red eyes slightly furrowed with hurt. Natsuki could feel her heart twitch with guilt though she swallowed it down and tried to act innocent. "Um, I'm sorry, Shizuru. What were you saying?"

The tips of Shizuru's mouth turned downward ever so slightly for just a fraction of a moment, before she schooled her features again. Her voice was calm and even, but Natsuki could tell that the older girl was far more upset than she was letting on by the coolness in her words. "Natsuki, I can understand that you find Himemiya-san intriguing, as does the rest of Fuuka and even myself to a certain extent. But, I would appreciate it that if agree to come out with me to chat, you would actually use the time to talk to me rather than keeping tabs on other people."

Shizuru might as well have upended a cup of cold water directly over top of Natsuki's head. She sat there, stunned, staring back at Shizuru and feeling like the biggest jackass in the world.

No words passed between them for a few moments, until Natsuki managed to mumble out an awkward, if heart felt, "I'm sorry." By that time, however, the mood was much spoiled. Shortly thereafter, they settled their tab with Mai (the redhead noticing but not commenting on the iciness in the air) and left the diner.

Natsuki spent most of the evening brooding over the afternoon's events in Fuuka's library. If she could be perfectly honest with herself (which she'd always had problems with), she would have admitted that she was running and hiding – still running and hiding as she'd done for weeks since the end of the Festival. Even choosing to live with Mai and Mikoto, while ultimately a good decision, was rooted in the desire to flee from the scariest thing she'd ever dealt with: her feelings.

"What is wrong with me?" Natsuki muttered to herself, slamming her head against a bookshelf with a loud 'thonk!' that echoed throughout the empty library.

How could she have been so boneheaded? She _knew_ that she and Shizuru still had to clear the air between them – something they were both dreading and anticipating so deeply. She should have caught the significance, when Shizuru had asked to talk so suddenly and out of the blue...

But Natsuki wasn't ready. Heck, she realized now that the entire reason she'd become obsessed about her dark skinned visitor was because she'd been desperately trying to distract herself from havine to deal with Shizuruin the first place!

_Damn it. Damn it damn it damn it damn it. _

And it wasn't like she could just explain to Shizuru the reason behind her actions either, couldn't even let the other girl know about the mysterious woman she was obsessing about. To talk about her would be to talk about Duran and to talk about Duran would be to talk about the Festival, and to talk about the Festival...

She just wasn't ready to talk about the Festival with Shizuru yet.

Or was she?

_Sometimes, I wish we had just stayed dead,_ Natsuki thought darkly to herself. The day she had died, she had set out intending to accomplish just that. The world was about to end and she had felt at peace with herself about it. She had told Shizuru the truth in her heart and had been proud of her words because she knew them to be true. There hadn't been any doubt in her mind. She'd had closure – they both did.

Not like now.

Natsuki groaned and slammed her head against the bookshelf a couple more times.

By the time she left the library and went back to her room, it was so late that even Chikane was in bed with her eyes closed and the covers pulled up to her chin.

_Thank god for small favors, _Natsuki thought as she changed, brushed her teeth and fell into bed. She really hadn't wanted to talk to her roommate. But, apparently, she had thanked god a little too soon because a few minutes after she'd laid down, Chikane spoke.

"Rough day?" Her younger roommate asked.

Natsuki groaned internally. "You have no idea." Her voice came out almost like a growl. She hoped her roommate would take the hint.

Chikane evidently decided not to. "Try me."

Natsuki thought about it, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

_Shoot. What's the worst thing that could happen? I tried to be discrete to not mess things up with Shizuru and I've already gone and done that anyhow._ Natsuki closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them, they held resolve. "I have a confession. But, it's kinda weird, so I'm not sure how to say it."

Chikane considered this for a moment. Her next words were cautious. "If it helps you to formulate your thoughts, I can let you know that whatever you have to say, it's unlikely to make me think you any weirder than I already do."

Natsuki quirked an eyebrow and rolled over onto her side to look at her roommate, whom was still lying on her back with her eyes closed. "Wait. _You_ think _I'm_ weird?" She asked, incredulity dripping from her voice.

Chikane finally opened her eyes to look out of the corner of them sardonically at Natsuki. There was a hint of a smile on her lips. "Most people who resort to clandestine activities from around corners and behind bushes are a little weird in some way or another," she said dryly.

Natsuki groaned. "You knew about that already?! Why didn't you say something?" She felt like bashing her head against the wall again, but her forehead still ached a little from the number she'd done on it in the library.

Again, the younger girl didn't answer right away. Natsuki got the distinct impression that Chikane herself was feeling almost as hesitant about the situation as she was. Finally, the other girl sighed. "Perhaps because I am also a little weirder than most," Chikane admitted reluctantly. "I've been keeping tabs on you too."

Now Natsuki bolted upright in her bed. "What?!"

Natsuki's large action prompted Chikane to finally move and the younger girl rolled onto her front, positioning her weight onto her elbows. She looked over at Natsuki with clear, firm eyes. "Honestly, you weren't being particularly ninja-like," she said sardonically, apparently not realizing that Natsuki wasn't the resident ninja on campus. "You were acting so strangely. So, I asked around about you."

_Oh great. This just gets better and better. _Natsuki cringed. "Who did you talk to about me?"

"Mai-sempai, Mikoto and Yuuki-san," Chikane confessed. She offered Natsuki a bit of a reassuring smile. "You should know they think highly of you."

Natsuki blinked. _Nao thinks highly of me? She's gotta be kidding._

"Very highly of you," Chikane continued, smiling a soft, teasing smile, "highly enough to reassure me, repeatedly, that you weren't a 'bad guy' or a pervert, or a stalker. Well, Yuuki-san suggested you might have been one of the three, but, I think her definition of the word is a bit different from mine. In any case, they all let me know that your recent behavior is out of the ordinary for you, which leads me to believe that something must have happened to make you act this way."

Chikane took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was once more hesitant. "You saw her, didn't you? The long haired woman in red?"

Natsuki wanted to explode. Oh gods, why hadn't she just asked Chikane in the first place and saved herself a week of grief?! "Yes! YES!" Natsuki practically shouted. "Why didn't you say anything?!" She asked again. "She was in our room, the first night! You know her? Who is she?" Oh, how she _really_ wanted to bash her head against a hard surface just then.

"Well, what would you have me say?" Chikane frowned. "Sempai, you're the first other person I've met who's been able to see her besides me. And possibly Chu-Chu, though you can appreciate that I can't really confirm that." Chikane's frown deepened for a second longer before she spoke again. "As to your other questions... as far as I can tell, she's a ghost."

Natsuki stared blankly at Chikane. "A ghost." She said flatly. "Are you serious?"

A hint of annoyance appeared in Chikane's eyes at the question. "Well, what would you call an apparition only you can see who appears and disappears at will without seeming to touch anything?"

_An Orphan, _Natsuki thought darkly, though she didn't say it. She didn't believe in ghosts.

But, between secret organizations and wish granting red stars of destiny and giant half-mechanic, half-spiritual guardian animals, honestly, who was she to say? In some ways, she herself was also undead! Grudgingly, Natsuki decided to entertain the idea. "If she is a ghost, why is she haunting you?"

Chikane took a long time to answer, again. It almost drove Natsuki nuts, but she could appreciate why the other girl was being cautious. Chikane didn't strike her as a particularly open person, and she imagined that the younger girl was sharing things with her she'd never shared with another before. Eventually, Chikane looked away from Natsuki, pensively playing with a lock of hair. Her voice was soft.

"She's visited me since I was an infant," Chikane said softly. "Not very often, but enough times that I've lost count. However, though I'm the one who sees her, I don't think it's _me_ she's trying to haunt..." Her words grew softer still, cryptic to Natsuki's ears, as the younger girl appeared to be pondering something herself. "Or at least, I _didn't_ think it was me. But, since she's shown up here as well, perhaps it _is_ me."

Natsuki got the distinct impression Chikane wasn't giving her the full story but before she could call her out on it, Chikane looked over at her with blue-green eyes boring intensely into Natsuki's own. "Did she speak to you?"

_Crap._ It was the one question Natsuki most hadn't wanted to answer. She stammered a little bit before resigning to herself that she was just a terrible liar. "Yes," Natsuki finally admitted. "She said something about my..." and suddenly, Natsuki had a stroke of genius, "... my dog. Duran. He died recently."

Chikane studied Natsuki's features with that same silent intensity, and the older girl knew the younger girl had detected that she wasn't telling the whole truth, and was probably trying to decide whether it was worth pressing for it. Finally, Chikane settled for a simple, "I see. I'm sorry to hear. Maybe that's why you could see her too, since you were also recently touched by loss."

Natsuki considered this. "Maybe." _Touched by loss? That's one way to put it..._

They were silent for a long time after that, both lost in their thoughts. Natsuki couldn't help but feel a weight lifted from her shoulders. She really should have just asked Chikane outright from the get go, though, she wondered, would she have gotten such straight answers from the other girl had she done so? That was difficult to say. In any case, Natsuki realized that she should probably apologize for her earlier jack-assery. There were actually a couple people she had to apologize to. "Hey, Chikane?"

"Yes?"

"Sorry for spying on you."

"It's alright, given the circumstances." Chikane paused. "I am also sorry."

"For bringing a ghost with you to Fuuka?" Natsuki laughed. "That's hardly something you have control over."

"Not that," Chikane replied softly, her voice still serious. "It... wasn't just Mai-sempai, Mikoto and Yuuki-san I talked to," she admitted. The pause in the air was pregnant. "I'm sorry for causing trouble between you and Fujino-sempai."

Natsuki felt like she'd been punched in the gut. "I… I don't know what you're talking about." She said, rolling to face away from the other girl and hoping that by doing so, Chikane couldn't see the grimace on her face.

_Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap. Not this. Not now._

Chikane was silent for a while. Again, when she spoke, her words were overly careful. "Then I'm sorry if I misinterpreted the nature of your relationship."

That was not the right thing to say. At all.

Feeling very, very irritated with the tones in Chikane's voice she found suddenly very, very condescending (_gods, she's talking with oven mitts on!_), Natsuki clenched her fists. Weeks upon weeks of frayed emotions and dancing around the giant pink elephant in the room finally came to a head and Natsuki could feel something snap inside her, almost tangibly. "Shizuru and I are not together," Natsuki spat, "because I am not gay."

Instantly, Natsuki regretted her words.

_Damn it._ Natsuki squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists tighter and wished, for the millionth time, that she had a time machine so she could go back and surgically sew her mouth permanently shut to prevent her foot from taking up residency there. Why did she always seem to be able to dive into the tangled jumble of emotions in her brain, and select the worst possible thing to spew out?

And then, somehow, Chikane's mouth did exactly the opposite and she said possibly the best thing she could have said in a field full of landmines.

"I see. Is it going to be a problem if I am?"

_What? _Natsuki blinked. Slowly, she turned around to look at Chikane once more.

The younger girl's position mirrored her own – on her back, face turned to look at Natsuki. There was no malice or contention or challenge in her blue-green eyes. Just simple truthfulness, and expectation, for an answer.

_Wow. _Natsuki thought to herself, surprised and a bit admiring of the other girl's candidness. _She's... confident._

"Of course not," Natsuki quickly replied, suddenly feeling all the more anxious in the face of such self security and not quite able to admit why. "No, not at all. That's not... that's not what I mean. I don't... look. I... I love Shizuru." Huh. That was easier to say out loud to another human being than she thought possible. "She's like, the empirically proven most importantly person in my life. I'm just... I'm not _in love_ with her. Or at least, I don't think I am. Do you know what I mean?"

Chikane's eyes softened and Natsuki could see the empathy glimmering clearly in her blue-green eyes. "Unfortunately, yes. I do. Very much so." Her smile was soft with understanding and Natsuki got the impression that the other girl's candidness and self acceptance had been begot the hard way. "Though I am not sure how one would go about proving another's importance, empirically."

Natsuki chuckled. Chikane's self assured, teasing manner really reminded her of Shizuru from before the festival, before things had gotten so damn complicated. "Yeah, I really don't want to get into that."

Chikane knew not to press. "Fair enough."

There was silence once again. Funny, there had already been so much silence this evening, brought on by so much revelation. Natsuki would never have guessed, in a million years, that at the end of it all, the silence that ended the conversation would be so amiable. Certainly, it was not in her nature to open up so easily, but, Natsuki thought, that change was probably the result of Mai and Mikoto's recent companionship.

Looking over at Chikane again, she noticed that the other girl had closed her eyes, but wasn't actually asleep.

Natsuki's heart twitched as she wondered if she should just stop with the questions for the night. But in the end, the ache in her heart got the better of her, and she spoke once again.

"Chikane?"

"Hmm?"

Natsuki's voice was very small. "How did you know?"

Luckily, the younger girl understood what Natsuki was referring to right away.

Unluckily, she did not have an answer for her.

* * *

The next morning, Natsuki skipped class again. Not the full day of class, but she did decide that talking to Shizuru was more important than first period history. Heading over to the University campus, Natsuki waited outside the building she knew Shizuru had her first class in, and hoped she hadn't missed the other girl.

She hadn't. Shizuru arrived a few minutes later, and her eyebrows lifted when she saw Natsuki. "This is a surprise," she said with a smile. There wasn't a hint that anything was wrong in that smile, and yet, somehow, Natsuki knew that that wasn't true.

"Hey." Natsuki greeted. She swallowed nervously. "Shizuru, listen. About yesterday, I'm sorry. Really. I've been an idiot recently."

The edge of Shizuru's lips twitched amusedly. "Go on."

Natsuki rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. Her heart wavered. Could she talk about the Festival? She swallowed again. "I've just had things on my mind that I wasn't sure I should talk about because... well... I just didn't know if _we_ were ready to talk about it."

Shizuru's eyes widened. Natsuki noticed the older girl's grip on her purse tightened ever so slightly. The sight galvanized Natsuki, as the last thing she wanted to do was to drag this out for the other girl. But she had to choose her words carefully. It seemed to take forever, but finally, finally, Natsuki chose her words.

"Would you do it again?" Natsuki asked, softly. 'If... If somehow, Kiyohime came back to you... would you do everything you did before again?"

Ruby red eyes widened even further and then flooded with sorrow and regret.

Natsuki bit her lip. Was it a fair question? She wasn't sure.

_'Everything…' I don't even know what 'everything' encompasses..._

Shizuru closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she couldn't look Natsuki straight in the eyes, though Natsuki could obviously see the turmoil in them.

"I would."

The shame in Shizuru's voice resonated deeply in Natsuki's ears, and Natsuki could feel her own heart twist in knots at the answer she had already expected.

They stood in awkward silence while Natsuki's heart thundered in her head, obliterating the thoughts she was desperately trying to put together. She could feel the words escaping her though, and as she continued to look at Shizuru, she knew that she had to say something, that every second her tongue remained tied, the knife of guilt in Shizuru's heart twisted a little deeper, pushing Shizuru a little further away from her.

"Don't." Natsuki blurted.

Shizuru looked up at Natsuki, her ruby eyes knitted with confusion.

Natsuki swallowed. "Don't." She repeated. To punctuate the point, she cautiously reached out and gave one of Shizuru's hands a squeeze. "Promise me, okay? I..." Damn, her throat was so dry. ""I… I love you too much to lose you like that again, okay?" Her grip on the older girl's hand tightened.

Shizuru looked down at their her hand for a moment, as though unbelieving that they were being held in Natsuki's own. Finally, slowly, a small, bittersweet smile came to her face. She nodded.

Natsuki smiled. "Good." She hesitated only for a moment. And then she wrapped her arms tightly around the other girl's neck.

Shizuru returned the embrace like a woman drowning.

There was still so much left to say, to clarify.

But at least they were on their way.

* * *

In the middle of the night, deep within the caverns that sprawled under most of Fuuka Island, a single pristine white shoe stepped on a broken computer monitor, snapping it in two with a loud, echoing crack. The End of the World looked across the destroyed underground Obsidian Palace with a bored expression on his beautiful face. For weeks, ever since the end of the Hime Star Festival, the caverns had crawled with insignificant human ants, remnants of the Obsidian Lord's First District. They had inconspicuously collected everything of importance that they could, destroying everything that they couldn't. The prison that had trapped and enslaved the Crystal Princess for the last 300 years, had been completely dismantled. Anything mystical had been emptied when Mashiro had gone, and there was only scrap and junk now which once had been on the most advance edge of human technology.

The End of the World had patiently waited the last several weeks for the human ants to finally leave. While he had already waited 15 years for this (and thousands of years before even that), the last few weeks had been especially trying. They were so close now, after all. There were only a few more chess pieces to put into play.

"Your people certainly were thorough with the tear down," The End of the World intoned, the annoyance in his voice clear. He ground the former computer monitor under his heal a little further, "but their clean up leaves something to be desired."

Sitting atop of the breast pocket on his fine, white, militaristic uniform, a single, perfectly round but slightly cracked amethyst gemstone glowed. "If it's cleanliness you want, hire a maid," the Obsidian Lord replied contemptuously.

The End of the World shrugged. "Well, I suppose Orochi will not mind too much. I imagine his decorative sensibilities have always fallen more on the entropic side. Are you ready?"

The amethyst gemstone glowed once more. "Yes. But remember our deal. I care nothing about the miko or the new Prince. But the Hime are mine."

The former Prince resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The Obsidian Lord had yammered constantly on and on for the last several weeks about revenge; it was a large part of the reason why the former Prince was feeling as annoyed as he was. The Obsidian Lord had always been somewhat delusional about grandeur, but such was the nature of one fueled by greed and ambition, and unfortunately, out of the three of them, he was the only one who still had a fully functioning connection to that which powered him.

"As agreed. Let's begin." Taking his hands out of his pockets, the End of the World clenched his fists in concentration and closed his eyes while the amethyst gemstone on his breast pocket glowed ominously.

For a while, nothing happened, and then, the giant cavern began to groan and rumble. The debris on the ground rattled about as a giant form was summoned into the cavern. Finally, when the debris came to a rest, in the place of where the Crystal Princess had been trapped, a large monstrous beast laid instead, still bound in wards, each of its eight necks chained so tightly to the ground that the massive metal links were sticky with blood from where they cut through spiky armour and into flesh.

The End of the World was silent, breathing deeply. Finally, he put his hands in his pockets again, when he had recovered from some of the strain of using a power not quite his own. "Well?" He asked the Eight Headed Beast with a smirk. "Comfortable?"

Orochi cracked open a single eye. "Like a swaddled newborn." He grumbled dryly. He tried to stretch, an action that caused the cavern to rumble again, and large boulders to become dislodged from the roof. One of those boulders fell just in front of the End of the World, burrowing halfway into the ground. The former Prince put a foot on it.

"I'd advise against that." He said drolly. "We're not quite ready to announce our presence, I'm afraid."

"What is left to do?" The Obsidian Lord demanded.

"Several things. Not much." The End of the World quirked an eyebrow when he felt a breeze on the wind signalling the arrival of a presence he had not been in the company of for many years now.

Smiling, he turned around to address the Witch. "Hello, dear Sister. How kind of you to come greet me."

Her body was mostly covered by her cascading waves of dark purple hair. Certainly, the hair covered her more than her clothing did, the simple red tunic that it consisted of. She stepped forward, her bare feet making no sound. There was no emotion in her ancient green eyes.

"You keep ugly company these days, Brother." She said.

"Do I?" He asked, chuckling. "Granted, they may not be as beautiful as you, but I would not be so rude as to call them ugly." He stepped forward, removed a hand from his pocket, and touched the back of his fingers to the side of her face. "After all, who could even begin to compare with you?"

The Witch did not respond to his touch. She simply continued to look dispassionately at him.

The End of the World sighed. "Do not be that way, Anthy. Come now, isn't my company better than none? You left me for her but she cannot see you. Who have you left but me? And you did not find my touch so unpleasant once."

There was no response. Just that same, dead gaze. After a few moments, the Witch silently turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness of the caverns.

"Ignore her," the Obsidian Lord spat, annoyance plain in his voice. "As you say, the Witch can never hope to be with her Prince. She cannot interfere here."

The End of the World did not respond to the comment right away, feeling irritation himself at his compatriot's short sightedness. It was no wonder he'd lost to a bunch of school children. "You are right, and you are wrong." He simply said.

The Witch could never hope to be with her Prince. And yet, the Witch could _only_ hope to be with her Prince. That was what he was counting on.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hmm... I know in an earlier chapter, I'd decided that Orochi shouldn't have a gender and was called 'it', but the Obsidian Lord is essentially genderless too, and yet, his association with Reito really makes it hard for me to think of him as anything but male, and then it seemed somewhat weird to leave only Orochi as gender free. Hmm. This isn't a plot point, but I may have to go back when the dust is settled and edit this...

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I : How did you know?

[CHIKANE and NATSUKI are lying in their separate beds on their back. NATSUKI looks over at CHIKANE.]

NATSUKI: [Turning to look at CHIKANE] Chikane?

CHIKANE: [Turning to look at NATSUKI] Hmm?

NATSUKI: [Very small voice] How did you know? That you were gay?

CHIKANE: Oh. Here. [Tosses Doropanda Tours Shiznat Doujin onto NATSUKI's lap] Does this do anything for you?

NATSUKI: [Turns beet red while a line of blood trickles from her nose] ...!

CHIKANE: [Smiles knowingly] Congratulations. You are very, very gay.

* * *

OMAKE II: Ojou-sama Tipping

[On Fuuka school grounds, close to the church, HARUKOW is once again grazing grass. She is accompanied this time by NANAMOO. What is a NANAMOO? A NANAMOO is a very similar looking cow to HARUKOW, except that she doesn't have bangs, is orange gold in color (similar in shade to Fuuka's school jacket), has black legs and wears a giant cow bell. The markings on her hide resemble a more militaristic uniform than HARUKOW's, right down to the purple tassels on the shoulder blades.]

NANAMOO: Mooooou? [Munch munch munch]

HARUKOW: [Nodding in agreement] Mooooou. [Munch munch munch] [Pause. Snarky.] Moooou.

NANAMOO: [Hides a mean smile behind a hoof] Moou-hohohohoho.

[In the background, MIKOTO and NAO's heads pop out from the bush. CHU-CHU is sitting on top of MIKOTO's head. MIKOTO and NAO grin mischievously at each other and nod. They silently jump out from the bush, run up to NANAMOO and HARUKOW and tip both cows over. NANAMOO and HARUKOW crash into the ground mightily, mooing with much fuss and indignity. MIKOTO and NAO run away laughing uproariously.]

[NANAMI and HARUKA slide onto the scene, both shaking their fists in unison at MIKOTO and NAO's retreating forms furiously]

NANAMI: Damn kids! Get off my property!

HARUKA: That's it! I quit! If I really am only going to be a cow, I'd rather not show up in this fic at all!]


	5. Chp 4 - Presidency & Fencing

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 4

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 15, 2013 – January 20, 2013

Word Count: 7,400

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

[MaiHime][KannaMiko][Utena] "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between Chikane, Shizuru, Natsuki, Utena and others.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

That Fuuka High School would see back-to-back landmark elections was unexpected. Last year, no one had been surprised when Fujino Shizuru beat Suzushiro Haruka in the Presidential race, but the size of the landslide victory was one for the history books of 817 to 12. The student political landscape a year later was markedly different. Rather than having two strong contenders (well, strong in their own ways), there were several candidates, none of whom appeared to be a clear leader. There were three seniors, plus two from the 11th grade including Kikukawa Yukino, as well as one dark horse candidate, Himemiya (Anthy) Chikane, from the 10th grade.

At first, most students laughed when a first year – and a transfer from outside Fuuka at that – showed up on the candidate list for President, a role traditionally won by a senior. They wrote her off as overly ambitious, even though she became immensely popular amongst her peers quickly. The most serious toss up was between the strongest of the 3rd years and Yukino, who, despite only being a 2nd year, was also the only candidate to have been on the council before, and had been working hard as a horse with the previous council on the rebuilding of Fuuka. Her mentor and best friend, Haruka, though graduated and moved onto Fuuka University, helped her out with her campaign (it was arguable whether this was to her benefit or detriment however).

It wasn't until the presidential debate that the second and third years finally have a chance to meet Himemiya Chikane and her position shot up astronomically through the polls. Chikane did not carry herself as a mere first year would. She stunned the school with her eloquence and poise, and she spoke intelligently and confidently, easily overshadowing the other candidates. Harada Chie soon dug up her background and the student body learned that she had placed exceptionally well in the national exams. She had also been class representative since primary school and possessed, apparently, a sizable measure of skill in both arts (piano) and sports (archery). Amongst her contemporaries in 1st year, some of her peers were so enamoured with her there were already rumblings of a fan club starting up. (Members of the still-strong-in-numbers Fujjino fanclub had scoffed when asked if there were any fears of defection.) She'd already been given a fond nickname by her classmates: Hime, or Hime-sama, a moniker that caused unexpected jumpiness in several people, including her roommate Natsuki, whenever it was used in their presence.

All of this would have been impressive on its own, but what ultimately clinched the victory for Chikane was when the student body saw her standing behind the podium, they were struck dumb by just how much her dignity and composure reminded them of their beloved and fondly remembered former-President Fujino Shizuru. Indeed, after the debate, she had gained another nickname: Fujino Version Beta.

In the end, the votes were split quite evenly but Chikane just barely beat out Yukino by a small handful of votes, and the school elected their first ever 10th grader Student Council President.

Haruka blew a gasket. Upon learning the results of the elections, she sought out Shizuru just before their shared history class, pointing one mighty finger in Shizuru's face and accusing, "You! You sacrileged Yukino with another bubuzuke-onna!"

"... do you mean sabotage by chance, Suzushiro-san?" Shizuru quirked an eyebrow. "I take it by your state of agitation that perhaps the President-elect is Himemiya-san?"

"Yes! No! Whatever! That's not the point!" Haruka was practically pulling out her hair. "Dammit all, Fujino, and here I was beginning to think better of you! After how hard Yukino worked with us, how could you do this to her?"

"Ara, but I had nothing to do with the election. I never endorsed Himemiya-san. I did wish her luck, but I wished Kikukawa-san luck as well." But though she said this, Shizuru had been aware that her limited associations to date with Chikane via Natsuki would influence the elections; she just hadn't particularly cared enough to stop the casual interactions.

The truth of the matter was, Shizuru would actually have preferred Yukino to win the Presidency. At least Yukino had been a part of the Hime Festival, and was smart enough to keep it buried. _With Himemiya-san… _Shizuru knew she'd done a thorough job expunging the details of the Festival from the eyes of 'normals', but there were certainly enough clues and inconsistencies remaining that an inquisitive mind could really open up a can of worms.

_Let's hope she is as discrete as she is sharp, _Shizuru thought, feeling a little troubled, _it really would have been better if Kikukawa-san had won. _

Uneasy and awkward as Shizuru's interactions with Yukino had been since the festival, and as much as they had tried to (and largely succeeded) to avoid any alone time with each other, none the less, they had been able to be cordial for the sake of their common goals and activities. It had actually been something of a milestone when Shizuru had wished Yukino luck, and the mousy younger girl had accepted it.

Yukino was still obviously wary of her; she still remembered Shizuru's actions. The Hime all remembered (even those trying their best to forget), though it was hazy for their most precious people. Some of the Hime had told their most precious ones everything. Yukino, evidently, had decided to tell Haruka a slightly tinted version (or perhaps Haruka had been too stubborn to accept the possibility that she had actually died and then come back to life), because the blonde had acted more or less the same towards Shizuru and Reito since.

In any case, Haruka continued her rant. "But that's not possible!" She cried, "how could Yukino possibly lose to a first year?! I helped her myself!"

Shizuru caught herself before she could sigh. "Have you considered, Suzushiro-san, that perhaps campaigning on a platform of harsher punishments for students caught skipping class just didn't resonate amongst the student body as much as you thought it would?"

"Posthumous!" Haruka declared.

"Preposterous?" Shizuru offered.

"Yes! No! Whatever!"

This time, Shizuru couldn't quite hold in her sigh. "Well, in any case, Suzushiro-san, I wouldn't be so worried for Kikukawa-san. If I had to guess, I'd say that Himemiya-san is the type who will recognize the value in a hard-working, experienced teammate. She'll likely ask Kikukawa-san to be her Vice President, if she hasn't already."

Haruka thought about this for a moment, harrumphed mightily, and turned on her heels to investigate if this could be true.

Left alone, Shizuru frowned slightly and pulled her phone from her pocket. To learn of the results of the election from Haruka rather than from Natsuki, whom Shizuru was feeling so much closer to now after their chat a few days ago, was disappointing.

Luckily, her disappointment proved to be misplaced as her phone buzzed with a text from Natsuki, even as she was looking longingly at it.

_Hey. Chikane won. Mai says we should host a party tonight. Coming?_

A smile came to Shizuru's lips as she quickly typed in a response. _Of course._

* * *

As the sun had long set, Chikane looked at her reflection in the window. The bone white jacket of the student council President was much more flattering on her skin tone than the regular orange-gold jacket was, and she was pleased.

She felt a buzzing in her pocket and took out her cellphone. There was a short text from her mother: _How did you do? Did you win?_

The cellphone was a going away present from her mother. At first Chikane had thought the phone an unnecessary expense, and had admonished her mother for buying it for her, but Utena had been insistent. '_Most high school students would be happy to be given one,'_ her mother had said, '_so don't complain! And now you don't have an excuse for not phoning me!' _

Chikane couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She had only been away from home for a short month, and already, she was not calling her mother as much as she had promised the woman. Wanting to assure her mother that she was doing well, and to not worry, she looked at the other girl in the room. "Yukino-sempai?" Chikane asked.

Her mousy haired senior, Kikukawa Yukino, wearing the black jacket of the Vice President, looked up. It actually looked quite good on her, the dark color allowing her to draw more semblance of authority. "Yes?"

Chikane smiled. "This is a bit of an odd request, but would you mind taking a picture with me? I'm trying to reassure my mother that I'm having a good time, you see. She worries so."

"Oh, okay. Sure, Chikane-san." Yukino pushed up her glasses. Walking over to where Chikane was, the two girls posed together while Chikane lifted the camera phone away and pointed it back at herself. Carefully smiling, she even staged the victory V sign and snapped the picture.

"Thank you," Chikane smiled appreciatively. She texted the picture to her mother with the simple explanation: _Yes._

A few moments later, she got a reply back: _d ^_^ b I'm so proud of you!_

"Is Chikane-san close to her mother?' Yukino asked.

Chikane nodded. "Yes. It's just been the two of us for so long, you see. "

'Chu!' Came the quick reply of an insulted monkey-mouse, sitting on the desk beside the computer Chikane was working at (the laptop, Chikane decided, was the single greatest perk to being Student Council President. Now she didn't have to trek to the library so often to get news on Himeko).

"And you too, Chu-Chu," Chikane quickly added.

Yukino chuckled. "You're lucky our new Executive Director doesn't have a problem with pets coming to school. I don't think Haruka-chan, or even myself, would have been quite so lenient."

Chikane gave Yukino a wink. "Perhaps that is why I appointed you Vice President, and Sakaki-sempai as Executive Director instead."

Yukino only chuckled again.

Chikane knew her upperclassman had been wary of her, had even questioned why she had handed the coveted Black Blazer over to her, and Chikane had explained truthfully that she couldn't possibly run this school with as little knowledge as she had of it, being so new. Yukino had then wondered if Chikane was going to be the kind of leader that 'over-delegated', and had been relieved to find that on this front, Chikane's attitude towards work was much more hands on than her predecessor had been. The two girls were able to work together well. No one was calling them the "greatest couple in the history of the school" like they had of Shizuru and Reito, but they both had hope that at least they wouldn't drown in their predecessor's gigantic shoes.

Chikane stretched, looking up at the clock. "Hmm, it's getting late, isn't it?" She noted. "Shall we call it a day? Thank you so much for taking the time to catch me up about last year. I'm not sure if it's fortunate or unfortunate that the shoddiness of the original construction of the school was only uncovered by a year unusually heavy with natural disasters."

Yukino half-cringed and half-nodded. (Chikane thought her senior really could benefit from developing a better poker face).

They had discussed at length about the circumstances surrounding Fuuka Acadamy, and while Chikane was fairly certain that Yukino lied through her teeth about several things, at this point, she was also fairly certain the older girl was only doing so for Chikane's own sake. Chikane was okay with pretending to be the fool for now; she could investigate further on her own.

Just after Chikane shut down her laptop however, they could hear a little bit of a commotion outside their classroom door. Chikane looked at Yukino questioningly, but the older girl simply shrugged and went to open it.

Mai was standing at the door holding a cake. Behind her, Chikane could see Mikoto, Tate, Natsuki, Shizuru, Haruka and a couple of other classmates from Chikane's and Mikoto's class. The cake Mai was holding had written on it 'Congrats, Prez & Vice Prez!' As one, many voices shouted congratulations as bodies came into the classroom, laughing and shouting.

Chikane couldn't help but smile, feeling her heart warm. She wasn't expected this at all, and when she looked at Yukino's face, she could tell that her Vice President wasn't expecting this either. Haruka approached Yukino, and was thumping her on her back with pride and joy.

Mai got to Chikane first, putting the cake down in front of her. Mikoto jumped onto her roommate's back and was eyeing the cake with massive watery, starry eyes. Chu-Chu then jumped on top of Mikoto's head, and had the same expression on her face as well, a hint of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth. "Here you are, Chikane-san!" Mai said happily as she produced a knife from out of nowhere.

Chikane took the offered knife. "Thank you, Mai-sempai," Chikane said, and meaning it. "You really, really didn't have to."

"Consider this a bribe!" Mai said happily. "For bailing Natsuki out when she inevitably fails the 11th grade for truancy."

"Hey, shut up! I haven't missed class in weeks!" Natsuki retorted.

Chikane chuckled at her roommate. "I'll try to keep that in mind, but I should let you know that when it comes to matters of student discipline, those are strictly in the hands of the Executive Director, rather than my own, so there will be a limit to how much bailing I can do."

"Like I said!" Natsuki continued to insist, "I'm not going to fail! Stop making it sound like that's a foregone conclusion!"

The conversations continued on, and at some point in time, Chikane got a chance to meet the unsinkable Suzushiro Haruka, who gave her praise for her wisdom in selecting Yukino as Vice President. Chikane was able to smile and sustain a conversation with the indomitable girl, though on some level, Chikane wondered if she'd ever be able to truly _like_ her. Unfortunately, Haruka's straightforward, extremely forthright attitude, while one she normally would have found admirable, reminded her far too much of a certain Oogami Souma, and that meant it would be difficult for Chikane to ever truly be at ease with the older girl.

_Oh, stop it,_ Chikane chided herself. Oogami Souma had been married to Saotome Makoto for several years now; the marriage of the son of the largest temple in Mahoroba had been deemed newsworthy by the tiny town's local newspaper, so Chikane had been able to read the article in an old online newspaper archive a while back.

"Congratulations, Himemiya-san," Shizuru said, later on in the evening. "I heard it was quite the close election."

Chikane was pleased that Shizuru had approached her. She'd been hoping to see her predecessor again. The last time they had spoken was when Natsuki was still spying on Chikane at the same time Chikane had been trying to dig up intel on the older girl. From the few curt words they had traded, Chikane had realized that it was not only her ghost that was negatively affecting Natsuki; Chikane's own presence itself had somehow been wedged between the two girls, and Chikane really didn't want to be on the bad side of Shizuru.

Not only did the older girl genuinely intrigue her from an intellectual and camaraderie point of view; from what Chikane could tell, 'bad' was never a side anyone wanted to be on with Fujino Shizuru.

"That it was, Fujino-sempai," Chikane replied gamely. Noting that Haruka was out of earshot on the other side of the room, while Natsuki was much closer and within audio range, she let her eyes purposefully linger on her roommate for a moment, before moving them back to capture Shizuru's ruby own. The glimmer of comprehension she saw in those red depths confirmed to her that Shizuru had seen the movement of her eyes. Chikane continued, with a smile, "nowhere near the landslide that was your result. I'm afraid I'll need to do far better if I were to have any chance of impressing you enough to get that dinner, yes?"

Both the former and current Presidents could see Natsuki's nearest ear twitch, though she didn't turn to face them.

Shizuru blinked. And then she smiled, those twinkles in her eyes now seeming to dance with amusement. "Now why would you want to have dinner with me, Himemiya-san?"

Chikane feigned perfect innocence. "To see more of you, of course. I'm afraid I haven't seen nearly as much of you as I was initially promised, upon our first meeting. "

Shizuru laughed. "You are quite confident, Himemiya-san, to still believe that one dinner would be enough."

"Oh, I am fairly certain that it won't be," Chikane admitted. "Perhaps, a series of dinners, then?" She paused to inject a moment of seriousness in the flirting. "Actually, it really would be tremendously helpful to me to seek your council. I'm still a bit fuzzy about how I should go about my duties as President." And then she flipped back to flirting again. "In any case, shall we start with one and see if it really is not enough?"

The former President had to laugh again. "That is a shameless way of securing a date, Himemiya-san. But, alright, if it is to help my successor out, I suppose I am honor bound to do so. When shall we have this dinner?"

"Hmm," Chikane tapped her chin. "Natsuki-sempai?"

Natsuki practically pounced on the two. "What?" She cried, obviously perturbed by the conversation she'd been trying so hard to pretend she was not eavesdropping on.

"Would it be alright if Fujino-sempai joined us for dinner tomorrow? It's my turn to cook."

Natsuki opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish. Her eyes darted back and forth between Chikane and Shizuru and it took her only a moment longer to realize they were having a laugh at her expense. She threw up her hands. "Agh! Do whatever you want! I can't believe there are two of you!" She cried in dismay. She stalked away, pretending to grab something to drink.

The former and current Presidents both chuckled. Shizuru gave Chikane an amused (but with a hint of thankfulness) look before going after Natsuki.

Chikane couldn't help but feel pleased with herself. She almost wished she hadn't staged that photo of having fun with Yukino to send to her mother. Had she waited a few more minutes, she wouldn't have had to stage anything.

* * *

The first month of school was surprisingly fruitful for Juri. After ratifying the agreement with Fuuka's administration, she spent some time sorting out her affairs at her home in Tokyo, and then moved into the visiting professor residencies at Fuuka University. For someone as notoriously picky as she was, there simply wasn't time to scout out a suitable long term residence on Fuuka Island, furnish it, and move in before classes started. She met a couple of realtors and went to a couple of open houses, but she planned on taking her time finding a new home.

In the meanwhile, the visiting professor residencies more than sufficed. Her place was set up similar to what an executive suite would have looked like at a luxury hotel, with a separate bedroom, study, kitchen and living room. It was a completely different beast from the student dormitories – nicer than even when she had boarded at Ohtori Acadamy as an adolescent.

She spent the first couple of weeks working with the teachers and administrators at Fuuka Primary School, and specifically with the gym teachers to set up a schedule such that each class in the 5th and 6th grades would have a module on fencing in their phys ed class. Not particularly enamoured with children, Juri none-the-less thought it important to introduce them to the sport as early as possible. Fencing was not very popular at all in Fuuka (must like the rest of Japan) so she felt it necessary to introduce the younger children to it, at least nominally. She hadn't yet found and hired an instructor for this, so when the first classes were rolled out, she ended up being more hands on than she had originally anticipated. Luckily, the teaching staff at the school was able to rescue her when giving pointy training foils to excitable pre-pubescents proved to be less than wise.

For the junior and senior high students, as well as at the post-secondary level, a fencing club was started with herself as primary instructor for now. Eventually, Juri's aim was to turn it into a serious club with contenders at the national level, but in order to build interest first, she realized it would have to start as a more informal club. At Fuuka University, in conjunction with the kinesiology department, fencing classes for credit would be implemented over the next semester.

It was towards the end of the month when Juri met the potential successor she had been hoping to train in Himemiya Chikane. It was during one of the first after school meetings Juri held to introduce the sport to potential takers, and since it was new and never offered before, and since Juri was a minor celebrity herself from the fashion world, a great many students showed up to see what all the fuss was about.

"Hi." Juri smiled winningly at her audience. She was wearing full protective gear, holding a foil in one hand and her mesh mask under her other arm. "My name is Arisugawa Juri. I'm a new Director for Fuuka Academy and will also be a fencing instructor over at the University. I did pretty well in a couple of Olympics a while back, but you kids probably don't know me for my fencing career, right? You probably know me more from my fashion line with Daidouji Tomoyo, _Miracles_?" She smiled somewhat sardonically at the sizable group of girls towards one side of the audience who practically had stars in their eyes and were holding back issues of _Miracles'_ catalogue, as well as various fashion magazines she'd made the cover of once upon a time. Juri wasn't sure if she should be annoyed that there were those more interested in her exploits in the fashion world than fencing, or if she should be impressed that they had even managed to _find _those back issues.

"Unfortunately, for those of you here for fashion tips rather than fencing tips, I'm afraid you are not in the right place. I will not be discussing anything related to fashion or modelling or _Miracles_, while I am in this gym. This time is going to be used strictly for fencing, so if that holds no interest for you, please leave now."

The bluntness of her words caused a lot of kids to look crestfallen, and a good many of them did trudge reluctantly from the gym. That did annoy Juri a bit, but, still, it was best to weed out the most obvious autograph chasers early on.

"For those of you who've remained," Juri continued. "I thank you. Fencing is an amazing sport, and one I hope you'll give a chance. I'd like to begin by thanking the captain of Fuuka's kendo team, Tate Yuuichi, for graciously being voluntold by Sugiura Midori-sensei to assist me in this short demonstration. If you'll please, Tate-kun."

To the laughter, wolf whistles and the odd shout of encouragement from the audience, poor Tate Yuuichi, also dressed in fencing gear, was shoved forward by a busty redheaded girl who was smiling happily at him. Tate looked distinctly uncomfortable, holding onto the foil and the mask with one hand while tugging at the bottom of the padded, protective jacket. A dark haired girl with glasses standing beside the busty redhead laughed, and snapped a picture with her camera phone. "Smile some, Tate! You look sexy!"

"Shut up, Harada!" Tate grumped, quickly pulling the mask on over his blond hair. He looked over at Juri with misgivings and held onto the foil handle with both hands in a classic kendo ready stance. "Can we just get this over with quickly, sensei?"

Juri laughed. "Not so fast, Tate-kun. First of all, this is fencing, not kendo. You only hold onto the foil with one hand. Secondly, we should go over some basics of safety first, alright? You've got the mask on backwards."

The audience shared a laugh at Tate's expense, who growled back at them, only causing them to laugh some more, and Juri couldn't help but think him a fine young man for agreeing to this. He had known from the get go that fencing and kendo were completely different animals, and that he could only be made a fool for agreeing to participate, yet still agreed to. Juri was grateful to him for this; kendo was a popular club at Fuuka, and Tate had been a national champion in junior high, so as a popularity stunt to jumpstart the fencing club, she had high hopes from his participation.

So Juri went over various basic safety points and described the purpose of each piece of protective equipment, pointing to the various things Tate was wearing. She described the difference between the three different types of weapons – the foil, the epee and the saber, which one they were using now, and what the basic rules of the sport were, including the concept of right of way.

After describing this, finally, she had a short match with Tate. It was clear that his training and experience with Kendo made fencing that much more difficult for him, so he didn't do very well at all, but he seemed to have fun with it, even revealing a grin on his face when they finally ended the demonstration and he took off his mask.

Juri smiled encouragingly at him. "Thank you very much, Tate-kun. That was marvellous." She looked out at the crowd of eager, excited faces. "Now, I've got a few more sets of equipment here today. Is there anyone who'd like to give it a try?"

Several of the students put up their hands, and Juri sent them off to the change room to put their equipment on.

"Hey, Hime-sama, you should give it a try!" Juri heard a voice exclaim excitedly. "You'd look so cool!"

_Hime-sama? _Juri zeroed in on the speaker, and noticed the pretty girl with long, long blue-black hair that was suddenly the centre of attention amongst a small group of boys and girls urging her on excitedly.

"Oh, no, I don't think so," The girl said, her blue-green eyes crinkled at the edges apologetically to her admiring classmates. The color of those eyes startled Juri a little as she realized that they were very close to the same shade of blue-green as her own. It was not a very common color in Japan.

"And why not?" Juri let the authority in her voice carry over to the ears of the pretty girl.

The girl looked up at Juri, and those eyes so similar to her own suddenly narrowed in obvious displeasure. Juri was momentarily struck by just how much unprovoked dislike was being directed at her. Wondering how her words could have possibly offended the girl, Juri gave her another winning smile. "Come now, where's the harm? Your classmates are right to encourage you."

The girl's eyes only narrowed a little further. The reaction did not go unnoticed by the folks surrounding her, who reacted to this negativity with surprise and confusion. Finally, one of the girls beside her even said, "um, it's alright, Hime-sama. You don't have to if you don't want to."

But then the girl evidently changed her mind as she quickly schooled her features into an almost haughty look of neutrality. "Actually, maybe I will give it a try," she finally said, stepping forward. Her classmates, not quite sure what to make of this 180, gave a couple of words of encouragement.

Juri smiled as she tossed the weapon in her hand over to the girl, who caught it deftly by the handle without thinking. _Oho,_ the fencer couldn't help but think, highly intrigued. _So she does have some familiarity with the foil._ The girl picked up the last set of equipment and walked past Juri without a look back. Juri could only feel her intrigue heighten.

While she went to get changed, Juri went through demonstrations with each of the students who had volunteered before her.

First up was one Minagi Mikoto, first year in high school. Juri had a hard time believing that the girl was a first year in high school as opposed to junior high, but that was how the girl introduced herself.

"Alright, Minagi-kun," Juri put her mask back on. "Let's go."

"HUUOO!" Mikoto war cried, gripping her foil with both hands. "Miroku!" She spun about in a full 360 degree circle while dragging the tip of the foil against the gym floor causing sparks to fly and taking a massive gouge out of the floor. Then she pulled her weapon up and thrust it into the floor. The tip of the foil embedded half an inch into the wood and the length of the foil bent into a crescent moon shape.

"..."

Juri stared incredulously at this display, wondering what the hell was wrong with the girl. She was not the only one as most of the students in the audience had sweatdrops on the backs of their heads. Interestingly enough, Tate-kun didn't, and the busty red headed girl beside him simply smacked a hand over her face.

Physics of a completely improbable sort came into play when the foil tried to correct itself back into the right shape and the force of the action launched Mikoto up into the air with an actually audible 'doiong!'sound. Mikoto went flying through the air and landed on the busty red headed girl.

Juri, still in the ready position, stared at the small student who climbed off of the red headed one like this was a completely normal thing for her and hopped back up to face Juri. But before Mikoto could do anything else, Juri simply poked her in the chest with the tip of her own foil and said, in a completely flat voice: "Get. Out."

Discouraged, Mikoto trudged away, even as a furious tick came to Juri's left eyebrow. She glared at the students menacingly, causing several to shrink back under her ire. "If anyone else wants to play Kenshin or Zorro, leave now."

Luckily, none of the other students were anywhere near as ridiculous as Mikoto was. Juri managed to get through the rest of the demonstrations without incident, offering professional but kind words of critique or encouragement. Finally, it was time for the last student.

The crowd hushed over when the girl addressed as Hime-sama came back out in full fencing gear. It fit as though it was made for her and she carried herself as though she'd done this a thousand times before. Coolly, she put on her mask and faced Juri in salute. The fencer's lips curled into an almost feral grin behind her own mask as she could feel the teenager's eyes glaring at her with cold challenge.

The match began.

The moves with which the girl opened her attacks stunned Juri, not, because it was flawless or even correct, but because it was exactly the same way Juri had been attacked only once before by one other. This surprised her so much, she almost missed blocking it. From then on, however, Juri's eyes narrowed in concentration, and she easily defended the other girl's attacks. Quickly, it became apparent to Juri that the student was indeed a complete amateur in fencing, but had an obvious, innate instinct for it.

Their match ended quickly with the girl scoring no points at all, but even to the untrained eyes of the crowd of students, they could tell that this last match had been different and far more intense than the other ones. When they removed their masks, Juri grinned appraisingly at the teenager. "What's your name?" She demanded.

The girl removed her mesh mask, though her features were still behind one made of schooled neutrality. Only the burning challenge in her eyes betrayed the intensity of the emotion she was feeling. "Himemiya. Himemiya Chikane," she replied coolly. "High school, first year."

"You absolutely must join the fencing club, Himemiya-kun," Juri praised. "You have serious talent for it."

But Juri's hopes were dashed just as quickly as her praise was given.

"I'm afraid I will not be doing so," the girl replied quickly, putting her foil down.

"Why ever not?" Juri demanded.

"I am already a member of the archery club and am student council President. I will have no time."

Juri's eyes widened. _So this is Fuuka's new student council president._ If she was already in the archery club as well, then the girl was right – it was unlikely she would have time to pursue fencing seriously. Juri felt the bitterness of regret in her, tempered only by the knowledge that as a Director on Fuuka's board, she would have continued interaction with this girl. Maybe she could convince her to drop archery for fencing. "A true pity," Juri replied sincerely. "Well, if your time ever does free up, let me know right away. You can find me in the kinesiology building at the University during office hours." She paused. "Hell, you could even come wake me up in the middle of the night at the visiting professors' residences if that's when the fancy strikes."

Unfortunately, Juri's offer was answered with a swift and cool, "that would be highly unlikely," as Himemiya Chikane turned and walked briskly away.

Juri could only frown as she wondered, once again, why this girl seemed so angry at her.

* * *

The events that afternoon were still on Juri's mind later that evening as she sat in one of the leather chairs in her living room, nursing a drink while flipping through the latest draft catalogue that _Miracles_ was working to put out. The light in the room was warm, coming from the artsy floor lamp. She smiled faintly to herself as she took in the keynote photo-shoot spread with a critical eye, letting her fingers trace around the bared shoulder of one of the models on the page.

The photographer had done a fantastic job once again showcasing the beauty of the model and the clothing with the certain intangible kindness and soft loving care she was famed for. It was this quality about the photographer somehow filtering through the camera lenses that made her so well liked and requested by the models. Fashion was a brutal, cut-throat and, for many involved downright demeaning business, so the style and approach of this photographer was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise often putrid environment. Indeed, Juri herself could remember how unprofessional some of the seedier photographers she'd been forced to work with during her time on the catwalk were and how blown away she had been after working with this photographer for the first time. That day, Juri had been so offended with the first photographer, she had verbally ripped him limb from limb and everyone on the set had been on pins and needles. Then Tomoyo ushered this small, shy, woman onto the set and Juri's world had completely turned on its head.

The photographer's style wasn't to the taste of the majority of folks in the business though – many found her work too saccharine and lacking in hard sex appeal – but it suited Tomoyo's whimsical designs to a T, and so their company contracted her on many projects.

_It was a good thing we got her when we did,_ Juri thought to herself nostalgically. Toiling away in the business for almost a decade with little to nothing to show for it, the woman had been on the cusp of being completely disillusioned with her own work and had considered switching to the harder, crueler, more proven methodology and styles of her peers.

_That would have been tragic._

Had she become just another faceless camera lense and voice instructing Juri to simulate various sexual positions for the sake of a sexy expression, Juri wouldn't even have looked at her twice, much less completely fallen for her as hard as she had.

Just then, Juri heard her cellphone buzz on the table beside her. Smiling at the name, Juri answered the call fondly. "Perfect timing, Love. I was just going through the catalogue."

"Oh!" The woman on the line's voice was high and sweet. "What did you think?"

"I have some comments on the copy that I'll send to Tomoyo in the morning, and I still think Matsumori's suggested pricing on the intimates line is mostly garbage, but overall, I think the staff did a good job. Your spread with Ichiko-san was lovely."

Juri could practically hear the woman brimming with pleasure at the compliment.

"Thank you, Juri-chan," she finally said, a hint of embarrassment in her voice. "But are you sure you're not being extra nice to me? You always have some sort of notes for everyone else."

"That's because you are in a special position to understand what I like and how I see things," Juri teased warmly. She paused for a moment as she closed the book in her lap. "... I miss you." She admitted softly, testing out the waters with uncharacteristic timidity in her voice.

"… I miss you too," the voice on the line replied, and Juri could hear the sincerity clearly in those soft tones. "If you're okay with my work, then I'll release the negatives to Tomoyo-chan. I don't have anything else lined up for the next couple of weeks. I could come visit you if you'd like?"

"More than anything else in the world," Juri smiled. That was exactly what she'd been fishing for. "I think you'll like Fuuka Island. It's quaint. Feels a little bit like Mahoroba. The kids are a riot." Juri smirked. "Hey, the strangest thing happened to me this afternoon."

"Oh? What happened?"

"I met a girl who fences almost exactly the same way you used to. It was completely déjà vu. I was so surprised I almost lost a point to her."

"That is a surprise! Juri-chan losing a point in fencing?" A giggle. "Was it the same kind of fluke mine was?"

"Almost exactly," Juri admitted. She laughed. "I really want to recruit her. Maybe I'll introduce you to her and you can help me convince her to sign up for the fencing team when you're here. For some reason, she doesn't seem to like me very much."

The voice on the line laughed. "Were you being overly scary again, Juri-chan? Well, if you want her so much, sure, I can help with whatever you want." Just then, Juri could hear some sort of commotion on the other side of the call. "Oh! Sorry, Juri-chan. I have to go. I'll send you a text with my travel plans in the morning? I might not be able to get there for a few more days."

Juri nodded reflexively, though she was alone in her apartment. "Sounds good. Good night, Himeko."

"Good night, Juri-chan. I'll see you soon."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The biggest problem I had with trying to write this story in Prince was because Utena and KannaMiko fit together so darkly in my head, I depressed myself. I have a lot more hope this time around with finishing since I'm including a series like Mai Hime in now, and MH has a lot of healing and soothing silliness and laughter in it; Mikoto is something of a walking omake to me, and it's hard for me to view MH completely seriously with characters like her (and Haruka) around, even though MH has a lot of really dark and heavy moments too.

The color of Juri's and Chikane's eyes seem to change depending on the animator, so in canon, Juri's eyes are probably a little more green than Chikane's but I think they're pretty darn close. I'm claiming a little bit of artistic license here. ^_^;;

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE 1: No lynching! Please!

[Two cats, CAT1 and CAT2 are lounging about a normal house in the middle of suburbia somewhere when the front door of the house is suddenly busted open. The AUTHOR grabs her cats and quickly barricades herself in the basement, tossing whatever furniture and junk is available against the door. She cowers in the corner, still holding onto both cats and a baseball bat in the other hand.]

CAT1: Meow?

AUTHOR: What? No! Mommy can't feed you right now, baby. She's going to be run through by either Chikane or the Swords of Humanity's I Mean Fandom's Hate, whichever finds her first!

CAT2: Meow?

AUTHOR: Because drama and conflict and the resolution thereof is important to a story! And it seemed like a good idea at the time!

[Suddenly there is a loud boom, and the barricade is blown open by CHIKANE with glowing red demon eyes riding on top of the SWORDS OF HUMANITY'S I MEAN FANDOM'S HATE.]

AUTHOR: Aww, crap! Not at the same time! [Cowering] Aaah! It'll get better! I promise! I promise!

CHIKANE: It. Had. Better. In fact, I am going to _ensure_ that it will. [Brandishes one of the swords threateningly.]

[A head pokes in through the broken basement door.]

AUTHOR'S WIFE / FIC SOUNDING BOARD: Sweetie! When you're done paying for your crimes against fandom, can you go get some milk? And clean out the litter box before you go?

* * *

OMAKE 2: Running Joke

[In the student's council room, HARUKA is bawling her eyes out on YUKINO's shoulder, sobbing incomprehensibly.]

YUKINO: [Rubbing HARUKA's back comfortingly.] There, there, it's okay. Let it out. Everything's okay.

HARUKA: Buwaaaaaa! [Still crying]

CHIKANE: Uh, what's wrong with Haruka-sempai, Yukino-sempai?

YUKINO: Hmm? Oh, she's just super happy that she actually has lines in this fic besides 'Moo'.


	6. Chp 5 - Relationships and Connection

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 5 – Relationships and Connections

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 20, 2013 – January 23, 2013

Word Count: Approx 8,200

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

[MaiHime][KannaMiko][Utena] "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news? The revolution has come and gone, and there is a new Prince to amuse!" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Eight Headed Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between Chikane, Shizuru, Natsuki, Utena and others.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

A month and a half into the first semester of the ninth grade, Okuzaki Akira had her first period. She freaked the hell out. The love of her (young) life and roommate, Tokiha Takumi, had no idea what to do, and called his sister. Mai, not quite sure how to deal with this, but appreciative of the fact that Akira came from a really old-school (shinobi) family, showed up at the boy's dorm, booted her brother out of the room, and presented the horrified ninja girl with some red bean rice and The Talk.

There had been shocked silence, followed by an incredulous, unbelieving wail of "every month?!" followed by one ninja girl fleeing out the third story window, as though she could outrun her menstrual cycle with sheer agility and tenacity. Mai stared after Akira, sweatdrops on the back of her head, when Takumi poked his head back into the room. "Is everything alright, Nee-chan?" Takumi asked timidly.

Mai looked over at her brother. "Oh, Takumi. Um." She rubbed the back of her head. "I think so. Does she do that very often?"

Takumi looked at the open window, and gathered that that was where his girlfriend had gone. "Um, not really, I guess." He came fully back into his dorm room, and Mai realized idly, that Takumi's body was going through changes too. Her baby brother was as tall as she was now, and his voice had dropped. Mai couldn't help but feel a strange feeling of pride and loss in her chest.

"Hey, come here." Mai said, a sad but fond smile on her face. "Let me look at you."

Giving her a curious look, none the less, Takumi complied. Mai put her hands on his cheeks and looked at him closely. Where he had been very cute as a boy, he was going to be a good looking young man, if she had to say so herself. The heart surgery had been a complete success in America, and Takumi had come back stronger and healthier than he'd ever been before. He'd even been able to start doing a little bit of sports, though he was still a largely domestic creature, as good in the kitchen as she was. In some ways, Mai was very glad that he was so close with Akira. She was a good girl. On the other hand...

Mai almost squashed Takumi's face as she realized something else. "Why are two horny co-ed teenagers still sharing a dorm room?!" She cried. "The administration's gotta know Akira's a girl by now, don't they?!"

"Mrph Mrooorph mer mwho!" Takumi replied, flaying his arms before being able to rescue his face. There was a wicked blush across his cheeks. "Nee-chan!" He said, scandalized. "It's fine – it's all fine. Yes, everyone knows Akira's a girl, even if she still wears the boy's uniform, and the RA was okay that we keep sharing a room because we haven't caused any trouble yet and promised not to. It's fine, Nee-chan! Really!"

Mai stared at Takumi as she tried to wrap her head around the word 'trouble' and what it could possibly entail in this situation for her not-a-baby brother. On the one hand, Mai knew she shouldn't be worrying yet; Akira was so young, she hadn't even had The Talk yet (until just now). On the other hand, however, Akira loved Takumi so much, he had once died for it.

And, the fact of the matter was, her baby brother wasn't a baby anymore. He was growing up. And his girlfriend was his girlfriend (even if she was more masculine than he in a lot of ways). Mai's arms began to shake as she lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes. "Takumi." Mai said very slowly, and dangerously. "You will promise me, on pain of death, that you will not be having any... trouble... with Akira-chan... until you are much, much older. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"

He got it. Whereas Takumi had only blushed before, now he turned completely beet red. "Nee-chan!" He cried again, scandalized. "Of... of course not! We're way too young for that!"

Mai grabbed Takumi's shoulders and put her ear up to his heart to detect any irregularities caused by dishonesty. His heart was beating a bit crazily, but not completely out of the ordinary for him. Satisfied, she released him and gave a sigh of relief. "Okay then. Thank god," she breathed a sigh of relief.

Right. That was silly of her. She knew her brother was super responsible and a good boy, who would be a good man. Ahahaha, what was she worrying about?

"But... but what about Nee-chan?" Takumi asked suddenly.

Massive sweatdrops suddenly appeared around Mai's head. "Ahahaha! Oh, Takumi! Wh-what are you saying?!" Mai asked, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

But her younger brother was serious. "Nee-chan," He admonished. "You chose Tate-san over Reito-san, right? I know you've been going steady with him for a while now." He bit his lip. "Look, I know you're older than me, so you know better, but, you're not _that_ much older than me, so... " He trailed off uncomfortably for a moment before finally finding the words. "I just. I just want you to be happy, Nee-chan. And safe. Okay?"

Mai couldn't help but be touched by her brother's worrying. She ruffled his hair. He really was growing up. "I am happy, Takumi." She finally said.

He looked at her suspiciously. "... and?" He pressed.

Mai sweatdropped again. Oh gods, what was the world coming to – her baby brother enquiring about her sex life – and she was actually considering answering him! Finally, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly and with a massive blush across her cheeks, she confirmed, "and we're being safe."

Takumi's face did some interesting contortions, and he let out a breath Mai hadn't realized he was holding. "Okay then." He said, turning away. Under his breath, Mai thought she could hear him mutter to himself, "... I guess he can keep his legs."

* * *

Somehow, overtop of the noisy enthusiasm of thousands and thousands of high school students gathered for the annual Kantou region Inter-High Sports Competition, held this year at the Big-4 site in Tokyo Bay, Utena was able to hear someone call her name joyfully.

"Tenjou! Hey, Tenjou!"

Realizing that it was probably another teacher to address her so casually (actually, most of her students were even _more_ casual with her, some even calling her 'Utena-chan', but the dozen that were with her right now were all accounted for), Utena looked about and could see the extended arm of grinning Oogami (nee Saotome) Makoto, Phys Ed teacher at Ototachibana Academy, waving madly at her. Makoto had Ototachibana's girl's basketball team with her, some of whom were also members of track and field. Utena met Makoto last year, also during the Inter-High competitions, when their basketball teams had faced each other in a semi-final's match and a completely unexpected fight had broken out. Weeell, the fight might have been unexpected on Makoto's side, but Utena's students were a bit rougher around the edges. After the teachers themselves had to step in to break things up, they had gone out for drinks to avoid any hard feelings and ended up becoming fast friends. Makoto really reminded Utena of Shinohara Wakaba, her best friend from what felt like a lifetime ago.

Utena grinned back at Makoto when the woman arrived with her students in tow. "Hey, Oogami! Ready for the rematch?"

"You bet!" Makoto laughed. "The team's been itching all year for this!"

Indeed, the captains of both teams had already gotten right up in each other's faces, glaring balefully at each other. Utena had to give the girl from Ototachibana props for not flinching; her own team captain (while actually a very sweet girl), cut a very imposing image amongst the athletes gathered today. The girl still insisted on wearing her school uniform skirt down to her ankles and was currently sporting a hygienic mask across the lower half of her face. Parts of a snake tattoo were visible from under the collar of her uniform top. Belatedly, Utena reminded herself to check her student's duffle bag to see if she had snuck Mr. Lead Pipe back in. (Honestly, it was relatively easy to take the sukeban out of the girl gang, but it was quite another matter to take the sukeban out of the girl.)

Utena's student narrowed her eyes. "Your ass is mine." She snarled from behind her mask.

"Bring it." Retorted the clean-cut captain from Ototachibana.

Both Utena and Makoto sweatdropped, grabbed their captains and ushered their teams away from each other as quickly as possible. "Aaah, let's catch up later, Tenjou! Same bar as last time? Around 8 o'clock?" Makoto suggested.

"I'll be there, Oogami!" Utena agreed.

Later that evening, after the day's competitions were over, Utena met Makoto in the bar at the hotel that the Ototachibana athletics team was staying at. Utena had a hard time getting into the bar, despite her ID card showing her to be actually several years older than the host himself.

"Kid, stop trying to get me in trouble!" The host said, trying to shoo Utena away. "That's ID's obviously fake. There is no way you are 29 years old! Gimme a break! With so many of you sports kids in town, you think you're the first one to try to pull something on me? Get out of here!"

Utena groaned. Why did this _always_ happen to her. Luckily, she could see Makoto inside already, and called out to her. "Oi, Oogami! Help me out!"

Makoto came over and laughed. After a few minutes of confirmation and double checking, finally, Utena was able to sit down at the bar with Makoto.

"Honestly, Tenjou," Makoto laughed as they both ordered some drinks. "Can you blame the guy? You came to the bar still in your tracksuit. Never mind trying to get in here; even after you got in, how are you supposed to find a date dressed like that? Do NOT tell me you are okay with entertaining a guy who thinks you're a high school student!"

"Oh, leave me alone! It's not like I'm trying to find a date." Utena exasperated, nursing her beer.

"Why not?" Makoto pressed. "Come on, your daughter's grown now. What's stopping you?"

Utena opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to verbalize her thoughts very quickly. But really, how could she delicately let the other woman know that the thought of dating still scared her out of her wits? She had slept with one man in her life, once, and the day she lost her virginity was also the day she became pregnant.

Makoto steamrolled right over her. Grabbing the bottom of Utena's stool, she spun her around in the other direction and pointed over her shoulder at a decent looking guy in a suit on the far end of the bar. "What do you think about him?"

Utena wrinkled her nose.

Makoto laughed. "Yeah, that's a horrible tie." She spun Utena around a little more, and pointed to someone else. "Now, how about her? We've got some seriously aggressive cleavage happening there."

Utena couldn't help but feel the heat rise in her cheeks a little. How the other woman had managed to figure out her bisexuality so quickly last year was a mystery to Utena, but she was beyond relieved when the woman hadn't made a big deal out of it at all. Apparently, Makoto's best friend and roommate in high school was gay and Makoto had even helped her friend come to terms with it.

Despite her misgivings, Utena couldn't help but cock her head to the side as she considered the woman Makoto was pointing out to her. "Uh… maybe a little too aggressive for me," she admitted.

"Yeah, she should probably dial that back a little. They are gonna fall out and smack someone in the face if she turns around too quickly," Makoto cringed. Scanning the restaurant some more she perked up a little. "Hey now, how do you like beefcake?"

Letting herself be spun back a little, Utena suddenly found herself making eye to eye contact with a muscular man with a shaved head. Utena froze, not expecting to actually meet anyone else's eye. The man smiled at her. Utena freaked out, flailing her arms and quickly spinning her chair back towards the bar, guzzling down her drink frantically and then choking when some of it went down the wrong tube.

Makoto almost fell off her bar stool laughing.

Utena gave the other woman a 'can we PLEASE not do this anymore?' sort of expression and Makoto dropped it.

"Alright, fine fine!" Makoto wiped away a tear of laughter from the corner of an eye. "God, you remind me of when my friend Himeko was still in college. She never wanted to have a love life then either. But come on! Give a woman who married ridiculously early a chance to live vicariously! Shesh!"

Utena smiled weakly, eager to change the conversation. "Speaking of which, how's the family doing?"

"Doing good!" Makoto laughed, grabbing a stick of yakitori and biting off a chunk. "Souma made Chief of Police down at the station this year. He's the youngest chief we've had in a while and I hope it's not going to his head. Tsubasa-chan's having fun in first grade. I think he really likes math. How's Chikane-chan doing? She's in high school now, right?"

Utena perked up. "Yes, that's right. She's doing well! She got into Fuuka Acadamy on a Kazahana Scholarship." Utena knew she shouldn't boast about her daughter's achievements, but she was just so proud of her daughter, she couldn't help herself. "And, just last week, she won the student election; she's Student Council President."

Makoto's jaw dropped. "No kidding! That's amazing news, congratulations, Tenjou. That's really incredible. You must be so proud! She became President as a first year?"

Utena nodded happily. "She did." Pulling out her phone, she showed Makoto the latest photo Chikane had sent to her, flashing a victory V with her Vice President. Makoto chuckled. "Oh wow, Tenjou, are you sure you should have let her go so far away to school? She looks like she'd do better in this bar than you would."

That wasn't the best thing Makoto could have said to an obviously lonely parent, but Utena swallowed down her anxiety as much as she could. "Yes, well, that's Chikane for you. I swear, sometimes I think she was born an adult," Utena sighed. "But she's not. She's 15 years old. She's just a kid."

_At least Chikane's already a couple years older than you were when you went to Ohtori,_ Utena told herself for what must have been the hundredth time that week. _And she's a lot smarter than you were, heck, smarter than you ARE. She won't make the same mistake you did. She'll be fine... _

"You worried about her?" Makoto asked, sympathy plain in her eyes.

"So much it hurts," Utena admitted with a weak laugh. "Gods, I've barely known what to do with myself this last month. The apartment is so empty – especially since our pet snuck off with in her luggage too. I've just been burying myself in work trying to keep my mind off of it."

Makoto clapped a hand on Utena's shoulder. "That's why you need to date!"

Utena groaned. "Not this again!"

The visiting teacher laughed. "Okay, okay, no more, no more." Chuckling, Makoto ordered another round of drinks. "Hmm... Fuuka, eh? Hey, this is a really small world. You know that friend I mentioned earlier? Her name is Kurusugawa Himeko. Anyway, I'm gonna be seeing Himeko tomorrow, and she's actually going to Fuuka for the next couple of weeks. Do you want me to get her to bring something to your daughter? You know, sort of a 'surprise! I miss you! Call home more often!' kinda present?"

"Wait, Kurusugawa Himeko?" Utena's brow furrowed as she tried to remember where she remembered the name from. Then, a light bulb clicked on over her head. "Is she a photographer by chance?"

Makoto's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Yeah, actually, she is! Hey, I didn't realize Himeko was getting famous. Have you heard of her?"

Utena chuckled. "Well, I don't know if she is famous or not, but I know Chikane is a really big fan of her work. She's even got some prints of her photos." Utena chuckled. "When she was still in junior high, I got a couple of those prints blown up to poster size and plastered them around the bedroom for her birthday. She was pretty embarrassed, but I think she really liked that."

"Wow. Why aren't you MY mom," Makoto laughed. "Hey, why don't you give me one of those prints, and I'll try to get Himeko to sign it and give it to her when she goes to Fuuka? No promises that she'll actually do it. I mean, I bet Himeko doesn't even realize she HAS fans, but you never know."

Utena was touched. "Really? You'd help me out with that?" She asked.

"Sure!" Makoto shrugged. "I mean, what are friends for?"

Utena happily took Makoto up on her offer.

* * *

When Mai dropped Mikoto off by the scruff of her neck at Natsuki's and Chikane's room that evening for babysitting, she didn't realize that there was already a sizable gathering in the room, as Shizuru was also present. The former and current Presidents were at the kitchen table, casually chatting away, while Natsuki had been lounging in her bed. Mai had a sheepish expression on her face as she gently put one more kitten on the floor beside Mikoto. Akira had curled herself into a little ball and was holding a hot water bottle to her tummy. "Sorry," Mai gave Natsuki an apologetic wink. "Would you mind looking after Akira-chan too? I'm late for work and she could use a little TLC and wisdom from some kind and understanding big sisters right now. I owe you!" With no further explanation, she left the room.

Natsuki could only give her closed door a flat nonplussed stare where Mai had been standing earlier. _Work my butt,_ Natsuki thought. _You've got a date with Tate._

Oh well. Shizuru and Chikane were engaged in a discussion about some policy or other, and would continue poking at each other with verbal swords that went right over her head all night, so Natsuki was glad to take Mikoto off of Mai's hands. Another kid wasn't going to be a problem. Storing up the knowledge for a return favor later, Natsuki raised an eyebrow at the youngest girl in the room. "What's wrong with you?" She asked, nudging Akira gently with a toe. Akira gave a soft mew of protest and let the force of the gentle push tip her onto her side.

"..."

"I found her in the forest," Mikoto piped up, even as she quickly went over to the television set and pulled out the controllers from the gaming unit, tossing one at Natsuki. Chu-Chu climbed up onto her customary perch on top of Mikoto's head as the tiny girl rifled through the games and shoved her favorite fighting one in. "It was funny! She was jumping through the trees and then she suddenly grabbed her tummy mid jump and smacked right into a tree trunk."

"Mikoto!" Akira cried, scandalized. She leapt to her feet to try to get to the older girl, but her insides continued to betray her and she helplessly flopped down to the ground again, curled up.

A light bulb clicked on over Natsuki's head as she figured out what was ailing the ninja girl. "Oh. Is that it?" A sweatdrop appeared on the back of her head as she put the controller Mikoto had tossed at her down and then bent down to help Akira up. Chikane came over from the kitchen table to help her and between the two of them they got the ninja girl onto Natsuki's bed before the biker plopped down beside Mikoto and selected a character.

"Something hot to drink might help," Shizuru suggested, heading over to the kitchen and then coming back with a mug of something steaming, which Akira accepted. "You are Okuzaki Akira-san, yes? Mai-san's brother's roommate?" The youngest girl nodded meekly. "Do you want to stay here? Do you want help back to your own room?"

"No!" Akira cried savagely, turning bright red. "No." She said, more calmly, though she was still blushing something horrible. "That... that dummy's going to be there and I... don't want him to see me like this." Putting the cup down, she curled up around her water bottle some more. "Oh gods, I can't believe women _actually_ have to put up with this!"

"Hahaha, I never thought Akira was so weak!" Mikoto laughed, though her attention was mostly on the game, mashing buttons furiously.

The ninja girl glared balefully at the cat girl.

Natsuki rolled her eyes. "Oh, like you were so very stoic when it first happened to you." She gave a cry of dismay when Mikoto handed her ass back to her in the first round. "Hey! I thought we agreed on no button mashing!"

Mikoto stuck out her tongue. "That was last time. This is this time."

Shizuru turned her attention back to the suffering younger girl. "Well, Okuzaki-san, you can stay here for now, but once you feel a little better, you should probably go back to your own room. Trust me – you'll feel better there. And Takumi-kun's probably worried about you. Don't worry, you'll survive. Every other girl has."

Akira whimpered and nodded meekly. Wrapping her arms tighter around her hot water bottle, she shut her eyes and willed the world to go away. Shizuru pulled Natsuki's covers up, and the ninja girl accepted it gratefully. Shizuru then went back to the kitchen table where Chikane had also returned.

Between game matches (of which Mikoto was mostly winning, much to her annoyance) Natsuki eyed the sleeping form on her bed and huffed a little. "Man. I can't believe Mai just left Akira here to go see Tate. She better bring dessert back or something."

"Huh?" Mikoto looked at Natsuki, confused. "Mai said she was going to work!" She insisted.

"She probably is," Natsuki confirmed. "But I know she's got a date with Tate after that."

"Oh." The black haired wild child was uncharacteristically crestfallen. Suddenly, she looked over at Chikane. "Hey, Hime, can I sleep here tonight?" She asked, her voice eager.

Natsuki's eyebrow twitched. "Hey! Why are you asking Chikane for permission instead of me?"

Mikoto made a face at Natsuki. "Because I already know you'll say yes." Looking back at her classmate, Mikoto tried to make her eyes as large and puppy like as possible. "Please, Hime?" She pleaded.

Chikane looked up from her work and raised an eyebrow. "I don't particularly mind," she replied. "But why?"

Mikoto didn't answer, obviously troubled. In fact, she was so troubled, she put her controller down mid-fight, allowing Natsuki to finally win a match. "Aha, yes!" Natsuki crowed. When Mikoto didn't retort back, she looked at the unusually quiet black-haired girl curiously.

Finally, Mikoto sighed. "I don't want to be in the way if Mai's there with Tate." She finally said.

There was awkward silence in the room for a while, punctuated only by the taunting sounds from the fighting game, egging the players to select new characters.

_Uh oh. Here it comes. _Natsuki put down her controller. "Are you alright, Mikoto?" She finally asked.

Mikoto nodded glumly. "Yeah." She said, though she didn't exactly sound like she meant it. Chu Chu looked down at the girl she was seated on and gave a small 'chu?' of inquiry. Mikoto took Chu Chu down off her head and pet her tummy. "Yeah, I'm okay." She finally said again, and sounding a little more okay with it, though her eyes were still obviously sad.

Natsuki remained silent, sensing, rightfully, that the younger girl wasn't finished yet.

It took a few more moments, but eventually, Mikoto looked up from Chu Chu, and Natsuki was pained to see the confusion and loneliness so abundantly evident in in Mikoto's amber eyes. "Natsuki?" Mikoto suddenly blurted. "Why does sex have to change everything?"

Natsuki's eyes widened. Completely blown away by the younger girl's question, she opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to form words.

Sudden memories or possibly hallucinations from a lifetime ago suddenly surfaced unbidden in Natsuki's mind's eye.

Shizuru's red red mouth, coming towards her.

Shizuru, disrobing, laying down beside her.

Yukino's words.

_Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it. Do not look at Shizuru. Do not look at Shizuru. _But try as she might, Natsuki's eyes didn't listen to her brain, and before she could stop herself, her eyes had already looked over at Shizuru's ruby ones.

For her part, Shizuru had a completely normal, if slightly amused expression on her face from Mikoto's question. It wasn't until she looked back into Natsuki's eyes did one eyebrow lift in surprise.

And then, Shizuru's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, before furrowing again with shock and disbelief.

Natsuki froze as she realized that Shizuru somehow knew what she was thinking about.

Things went from suddenly bad, to worse, when Mikoto followed Natsuki's gaze, and looked over at the two girls sitting at the kitchen table. "Ne, how about you, Hime? Do you know?" Mikoto asked. Then she looked at Shizuru. "Shizuru?"

Shizuru didn't even acknowledge Mikoto's question. She just continued to look back at Natsuki imploringly. For her part, Chikane, for once, seemed unable to answer Mikoto's questions either, her blue-green eyes cloudy with disquiet. Those eyes darted worriedly between Natsuki and Shizuru's faces, the furrow in her brow getting deeper and deeper as she looked back and forth between the two older girls.

Not that either older girls noticed this, their attention solely focused on each other.

Natsuki's mouth went dry.

Mikoto went back to Natsuki. "Ne? Natsuki?" She shook the blue-black haired girl's arm. "Natsuki?"

Natsuki's heart pounded in her chest. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, exhaling slowly to calm herself. It didn't quite work. "I don't know, Mikoto." She finally said, her voice obviously tense. "It just does." She hoped the tone in her voice would put the younger girl off this line of questioning.

But of course, Mikoto did not take the hint. And instead, she asked the follow up question Natsuki was dreading and could see coming a mile away.

"Have you had sex before?" She asked. "What's it like?"

Natsuki's heart twisted. Her head was going at a thousand miles a minute as she wondered how to dodge Mikoto's spoken question while answering Shizuru's unspoken one. She struggled mightily. Finally, _s_ummoning every ounce of courage she had, Natsuki said as carefully as possible, "I don't know." She was looking Shizuru directly in the eyes, begging her to understand. "I don't know," she repeated, "and I don't care."

"You haven't."

Shizuru's words, so strong and vehement and _pained_, cut through the air like a knife and Natsuki felt like they'd sliced her in the face. Natsuki visibly flinched. She grimaced, showing her teeth. In contrast, Shizuru's lips were pursed, and she had a look of acute distress on her face.

"You. Haven't." Shizuru repeated, almost angry, mostly desperate.

Mikoto's face screwed up. "I don't understand." She complained. "How can-"

"Mikoto," Chikane's voice cut across her classmate's, stern and anxious as the tall girl got up out of her chair. "Please help me with Okuzaki-san. We should get her home. Now." Her voice was so authoritative that the small girl didn't give a peep of complaint. Her amber eyes were simply confused.

Akira, for her part, was eager to leave this place where the tension was suddenly so much sharper than all the kunai in the world put together. She gratefully accepted Chikane and Mikoto's help as they quickly left the room.

Shizuru didn't react to the hurried departure of the younger three girls at all, her eyes trained on Natsuki's the entire time. Natsuki, for her part, dared not look away.

The silence in the air threatened to suffocate them. Natsuki realized Shizuru had curled her hands into fists and that even those were starting to shake in her lap. Eventually, Shizuru lowered her eyes, her bangs obscuring them from view.

They both tried to speak at the same time.

"Shizu-"

"Do you really think so poorly of me?" Shizuru interrupted. "Did you actually think that I...?"

"Shizu-"

"You were frozen." Shizuru whispered, fists shaking. Natsuki could see hints of red seeping out from between Shizuru's fingers from where her nails were cutting into her palms. "You'd been lying in the rain, in soaked leather, all evening. By the time I got you to the teahouse, you were so cold..."

Natsuki swallowed. Suddenly, she didn't have to think so hard to remember that terrible night.

_Shizuru disrobing. Lying down beside her. Hugging her tight. Whispering her name over and over again. Telling her everything would be alright. _

"I did kiss you, while you slept," Shizuru continued. "And yes, I," there was a tremor in her voice, guilt so palpable it lodged in her throat, "I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy having you in my arms. But I-"

Natsuki wrapped her arms around Shizuru's neck tightly. "Would you just listen to me, please?" She interrupted.

A little shocked, Shizuru started, but nodded. Releasing the older girl, Natsuki knelt down in front of her, and looked up into her forlorn eyes.

Natsuki swallowed. "I said, I didn't know, because I didn't." Her voice threatened to quaver. "And I said, I didn't care, because I don't. Shizuru, even if you _did_... I..." Natsuki bit her lip. "The important thing is that I know you won't do it again. Because you already promised me you wouldn't. So whether you did or didn't shouldn't matter. Doesn't matter."

Natsuki took a deep breath. She was almost shaking as badly as Shizuru was, almost.

_It shouldn't matter,_ Natsuki had said.

But of course, it did. To both of them.

Shizuru was speechless as she looked down at Natsuki. Natsuki, who had already forgiven her, even when she wasn't sure what it was she was forgiving.

It was hard to tell which one of them felt more relief. But Natsuki was able to hold herself together a little bit better than Shizuru, who resorted to hiding behind a staged chuckle she didn't actually feel, mumbling out, "of course. Natsuki is right," and then wiping away the tear at the corner of her eye as casually as possible, as though its presence meant nothing at all.

* * *

Mai, feeling guilty about unloading Mikoto and Akira on Natsuki, decided to cancel her date with Tate after work, and texted her friend to let her know that. Natsuki replied that both Mikoto and Akira had already been sent back to their own rooms. The text surprised Mai, but none the less, when she got home, she did indeed find Mikoto sitting on her bed and looking glum.

"I'm home, Mikoto," Mai called.

When the younger girl didn't answer her immediately, Mai knew something was wrong. "Mikoto?" Mai echoed again, coming further into the room. "What's wrong?"

Still not meeting Mai's eyes, Mikoto continued to just sit on her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. Mai sat down on Mikoto's bed and put a hand on her head, petting her hair gently. "Hey, you can tell me, Mikoto."

Wordlessly, Mikoto shifted her hold away from the pillow and hugged Mai tightly instead. "Mai, am I in your way?" She finally asked.

Mai frowned. "What are you talking about, Mikoto?" She coaxed gently.

"With Tate." Mikoto said softly, squeezing Mai's middle a little tighter. "Am I in your way?"

_Oh._ Mai frowned. _What the hell did you say to Mikoto, Natsuki?!_ "Of course, not, Mikoto. Why would you think that at all?" Maybe she knew she wasn't being completely honest with the younger girl, but, neither did Mai think she was lying through her teeth to her.

"I'm not?" Mikoto looked up at Mai and there was such a look of relief in her amber eyes that Mai almost felt like she'd taken a blow to the gut from it. "But... but don't you need some... some privacy with him?" Mikoto looked away guiltily. "You've been sending me away to Natsuki's more and more often lately..."

_Oh dear._ Mai's heart skipped. First Akira, then Takumi and now Mikoto. What was so special about today that made all the youngsters in her life want to talk about love and sex?

Careful to use only the most calming tones she possessed, Mai chose her words carefully, even as she continued to rub the back of Mikoto's head soothingly. "I'm sorry, Mikoto. That was selfish and mean and insulting of me to do that to you. It's true that... that Tate and I do need our privacy, sometimes, but that's no excuse for making you feel unwelcome. Have I been making you feel lonely?"

"...a little." Mikoto mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I'll try not to let that happen again. I promise." Mai hugged Mikoto tightly, and the younger girl nodded.

They were quiet for a moment, before Mai spoke again, her voice still gentle. "Mikoto?"

Mikoto looked up at her questioningly.

Mai took a deep breath. "You're... okay, right? With Tate and I? You know that no matter what, I love you too, right? And that you should always talk to me if you're feeling sad about anything, right?"

Mikoto nodded. "Of course."

"Good." Sighing in relief, Mai gave Mikoto one more squeeze.

* * *

Later that evening, Shizuru decided to take the long way back to her own room. The night was warm, and the breeze was gentle and soothing against her face. Her knees were still mostly jelly, and she thought that maybe the walk could help put some strength back into her legs.

_Natsuki._

The depths of Natsuki's heart... would she ever be able to comprehend it all?

Of course, Shizuru had often wondered what Natsuki remembered of that fateful night. Of course, Shizuru had often wondered what Natsuki made of Yukino's threat the following day.

To accept even the _possibility_ that Shizuru may have violated Natsuki's trust in such away ... was it possible for anyone to be able to forgive that on the promise that it never happen again? Was it _right_ to?

Shizuru wasn't sure, and wasn't sure she cared. All she knew was that Natsuki _had_. And that knowledge filled Shizuru with humility and gratitude and joy and awe and hope and also, not a small amount of apprehension.

_Natsuki._

What an amazing, fascinating creature she was. That Natsuki could love and feel so deeply for her was simultaneously Shizuru's greatest joy and greatest burden and she couldn't help but wonder if the other girl's love could evolve further, as far developed as they already were. Despite repeatedly telling herself not to even think along those lines, and to just be happy that she retained such close bonds with Natsuki, Shizuru couldn't help but feel that troublesome stirring of hope in the bottom of her stomach.

Knees threatening to give way again, Shizuru sat herself down on a bench just to make sure she didn't fall on her face. Resting her elbows on her knees, and her forehead against her hands, Shizuru became aware of the bandages that had been put over the cuts on her palms.

_Natsuki._

As she sat there, trying to calm her tumultuous thoughts, strains of piano reached her ears and Shizuru perked up, not expecting the interruption. She stared at the window from which the music was emanating through. The room was dark, but the curtains were open, and Shizuru realized that she was looking into the music room and that someone must have been using the piano.

She didn't recognize the piece, but the music reached into her heart through her ears and squeezed. It was a song of sorrow, of regret. The tempo was moody and the strains heavy with guilt. She sat, entranced, for the few more minutes that the song continued, and the emotions evoked from the sounds were so all encompassing that she wasn't quite sure when it ended and when she was left by herself in the silence once more. All she did know was that when the song ended, she felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders and the resulting silence was almost cathartic.

Shizuru got up and went to the window of the music room where she wedged her fingers in through the crack and widened it. She was just as surprised to see Chikane seated at the piano as Chikane was to see her.

They stared awkwardly at each other for a few minutes before Shizuru put a well-practiced smile on her face and then saw the younger girl do the same.

"That was beautiful." Shizuru complimented.

"Thank you." Chikane replied. "I didn't realize I had an audience."

"Nor was I expecting musical accompaniment." Shizuru leaned down against the window frame. "I didn't recognize that. Who's it by?"

In the darkness, it was difficult to tell for sure, but Shizuru thought she could almost see a hint of color in Chikane's cheeks. Shizuru's eyebrows lifted as she grasped the significance of the other girl's modesty. "You wrote that? Why aren't you studying at a conservatory somewhere?"

"Conservatories seldom offer Kazahana Scholarships." The other girl replied dryly. And then her tone turned pensive for a moment. "And... I am not sure I am comfortable with the idea of others... listening."

"Ara. I am interrupting you." Shizuru straightened up. Belatedly, she scolded herself for her rash action of opening the window. Such a song was meant to be private, of course.

"That's... alright." Chikane finally managed to say. "I should have checked the windows more closely." She paused. "Are you on your way back to your room?"

Shizuru nodded, hearing the unspoken question from the other girl_: is everything alright with Natsuki-sempai?_ "Yes." She answered, to both questions. "Thank you for... for your discretion, earlier."

"Of course." Chikane replied. "And, thank you for _yours_ as well, Sempai."

Shizuru nodded, getting the hint, though she couldn't help but wonder what the other girl could possibly have done that was so bad she needed to beg for forgiveness in such a manner.

* * *

Later that night, Natsuki dreamed of someone screaming terribly.

Natsuki blinked. She was standing at the foot of a massive, massive grand staircase in an otherwise empty room with a very high ceiling. It looked quite a bit like a fancy hotel foyer or ballroom of some sort, though she couldn't see a reception desk. The floor was made of marble and there were marble columns set along opposite sides of the gigantic room, in front of large banks of tall, tall windows. In front of her, she could see a set of large doors. It was dark inside the room, the chandelier attached to the ceiling not on. The only light was from the moon, shining in through the large windows.

_Where the hell am I? _Natsuki wondered, whirling her head this way and that. She boggled when she saw the staircase behind her, and craned her neck up to see where it led.

_Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming_! Concentrating, Natsuki tried to remember what she had been doing, and fuzzily, she could recall trading a few slightly awkward words with her roommate before they had changed into pajamas and climbed into bed.

_Bed._

_That's it._ Natsuki decided. _I fell asleep! So this... this must be dreaming._ Looking down at herself, she noted that she was wearing her school uniform. It was a curious sensation, Natsuki thought, knowing that she was dreaming. She wondered where her brain had picked up the images to build this dream from. Maybe from a movie or tv show?

The screaming started again, startling and unsettling Natsuki. She jumped and whipped her head up the stairs. The scream cut off into a choked sob, and a panicked, "s-stop! Please! Stop!"

Dread dawned on Natsuki as she looked upstairs, a cold, cold, ball of ice steadily growing in the pit of her stomach. She took a single step up the stairs.

"Please," the sobbing, the begging continued, "please, Chikane-chan! Please...! I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I'm sorr-!" The cries were cut off by the vicious sound of flesh connecting against flesh.

The dread ballooned into out and out horror in Natsuki's stomach as she took several more steps up the stair case.

"Do not go up there."

The command was issued from behind her and Natsuki whirled around to see the purple haired, dark skinned ghost standing at the foot of the steps, her ancient green eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.

"You!" Natsuki cried. "Who ARE you? What's going on?"

"It does not concern you." The woman simply said, her voice full of pain. She started up the steps after Natsuki until she stood eye to eye with her. Her voice grew gentle as she reached out and put a hand on the side of Natsuki's face. Stunned, Natsuki didn't stop her. "You should not be here. Please. Leave now."

And Natsuki opened her eyes with a gasp and found herself in bed, her heart pounding mightily in her ears.

_W-What the hell was that?!_ Natsuki thought desperately to herself. She put a clammy hand up to her forehead. But try as she might, her nightmare had begun to fade, and already, everything was fuzzy, leaving her disoriented and full of dread, though for the life of her, she could not remember why.

_It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Nothing more. _Natsuki told herself desperately, as she rolled over.

Looking at the other bed in the room, Natsuki could see that Chikane was fast asleep, curled up and facing away from her.

With her body thus positioned, Natsuki could not see the torment on Chikane's sleeping face. Chu Chu was on Chikane's pillow, close to her face, cooing worriedly, and patting at the moisture gathering at the corner of her eyes.

* * *

In the dream of a memory of a time that never was, the Witch drew her hand back from where she had touched Kuga Natsuki's face, and sent her away from this dreadful place. There was no sound and no movement in the grand foyer after that, only the sound of soft weeping still coming from upstairs. Eventually, this was drowned out by the heavy echo of a pair of shoes walking across the marble floor.

The Witch turned slowly to address her brother, who looked at her, smiling cruelly.

"Brother, stop this." She intoned dispassionately.

"Stop what?" His smile grew crueller as he let his glowing green eyes wander up the stairs for a moment before settling them back on his sister. "You know as well as I that I haven't done a thing. I don't even have to lift a finger. She does all of this to herself." He chuckled softly. "The question, dear sister, is why _you_ don't do anything to stop her?"

Her eyes narrowed. She didn't dignify his question with a response.

"Can it be?" The End of the World mused. "That you can understand the value in her suffering? Her torment?" His smile widened. "Can it be that you seek the same end as I?"

Once more, she did not respond to his question. This time, however, it was not indignation that silenced her, but shame.

He laughed, as her silence answered him possibly better than any words could have.

He held his hand out to her, in invitation.

The Witch stared at it.

Closing her eyes, she reached out, and put her hand on top of his.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

... yeah. I never would have thought I'd ever write a chapter where menstruation features so prominently either, but, well, there you have it.

... Apologies for the heavy and light. I am still not convinced that delicate subject matters were dealt with appropriately in this chapter... -_-;;

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I : I Sense a Pattern

[UTENA and MAKOTO finish their drinks and are slightly drunk. They head back to UTENA's APARTMENT so UTENA can grab one of CHIKANE's prints of HIMEKO's work.]

UTENA: Don't mind the mess. I think her stuff is just in the closet. Ah. Here we are.

[The two women head over into the bedroom that UTENA shared with CHIKANE and grab a box from the closet. They open the box and flip through the prints, cards and posters there. Every single item is of a scantily clad fashion model posing provocatively. Every. Single. One. Seriously. Nothing but T&A.]

MAKOTO: ... this is Himeko's work?

UTENA: Yup. Chikane loves it.

MAKOTO: ... I see. [Pause.] So you know your daughter is totally gay, right?

UTENA: Yeah, that was pretty obvious to me early on.

MAKOTO: Huh. Just checking. [Pause.] Am I the only straight woman in this fic?

UTENA: There's a pretty good chance.

MAKOTO: Damn. [Sigh] I never get to have any fun.

* * *

OMAKE 2: A Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[YUKINO can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

YUKINO: Next time, on_ Revolutions_, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, Haruka-chan and I go to India.

[There is a quick clip of HARUKA and YUKINO, both wearing their old high school uniforms and carrying huge backpacks walking across a jungle. As they walk across the jungle, suddenly, NANAMOO leaps out from the trees, and charges them. They freak out, screaming.]

[Cut to another quick clip of HARUKA and YUKINO scaling the side of a mountain. HARUKA looks down and says something the audience can't hear to YUKINO. YUKINO suddenly looks really scared and points up. HARUKA looks up just in time to see NANAMOO falling down from the sky on top of her.]

[Cut to another scene of HARUKA and YUKINO in a small rubber boat, paddling furiously against roaring waves against a backdrop of lightning and rain. Suddenly, out of the mists, seven identical NANAMOOs riding jetskis can be seen barrelling towards the two of them. One of the NANAMOO's horns puncture their boat and they go flying into the stratosphere.]

HARUKA: [Hanging her head] Cows... why did it have to be cows? Shouldn't they be elephants?

YUKINO: [Sweatdrop] Um, cheer up, Haruka-chan... Um, well, in any case, please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 6 – 'The Curry Chapter'


	7. Chp 6 - The Curry Episode

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 6 – The Curry Episode

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 23, 2013 – January 28, 2013

Word Count: 8,300

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

Note: This chapter would not have been possible, if not for DezoPenquin's comments in the reviews. **Thanks Dezo!**

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

The explosive transformational qualities of 900 BillionX Curry (tagline: So Hot It Will Blast You To Smithereens And Make Phantom Elephants Trumpet Loudly), are not well documented anywhere in the world, not even by the most respected, renown curry experts in the world. So it really couldn't be considered Haruka's fault that she decided to actually _use_ the curry packet in her cooking rather than throwing it down the deepest well on Fuuka Island and pouring concrete mix down after it. She simply hadn't known any better.

Yukino however, could be thought of as a bit more responsible. Vastly experienced as she was, first hand, with Haruka's cooking, she should have warned Shizuru and Chikane not to actually ingest any of Haruka's offering.

The two older girls had been invited by the two younger ones to a lunch gathering more social than formal to get some advice on their student council duties, and both university students had accepted. Kanzaki Reito, having gone to Toudai for university, was not able to provide Yukino very much guidance, but Haruka, as former Executive Director, had happily stepped up in his place. She then proceeded to surprise everyone with her offer to cook for the occasion, refusing to take no for an answer. Curry, incidentally, was one of the dishes she could normally pull off decently, and with her family's construction empire making recent forays into India, one of their vendors had sent their family a gift basket containing examples of the country's most jealously guarded secret treasures, including, amongst other things, 900 BillionX Curry.

As it was, the resulting explosion inside the student council's room caused much confusion and panic as the current and former student council presidents of Fuuka Academy were then both rushed off to the nurse's office post haste.

Things got steadily more ridiculous after that.

* * *

Sagisawa Youko-sensei checked up on the two students and could find nothing wrong with them – not even their mouths were burned from the supposedly super-spicy curry. And yet, there was definitely something odd about both normally unflappable girls, though she couldn't place a finger on what that was. To be safe, she suggested they rest a little longer in the nurse's room and then left it, closing the door behind her.

Shizuru and Chikane stayed in their beds for only a moment after the door clicked shut, before turning to look at each other. Blue-green eyes locked onto ruby ones for an eternity in a moment, unspoken confusion and understanding firing back and forth in rapid silent communication. Wordlessly, they both sat up. Chikane got out of bed first, and looked down at Shizuru's hands, opening and closing them incredulously. Shizuru went straight to the mirror in the nurse's room.

"Well now, would you look at that?" Shizuru murmured slowly as she studied Chikane's body in the mirror in fascination. She waved her hand and Chikane's reflection waved back at her. She smiled, and Chikane's reflection echoed the serenity on her face. She said, "my name is Fujino Shizuru," and could hear Chikane's slightly lower, huskier voice making the declaration. The voice was a little sexier to her head than she would have guessed. Shizuru chuckled, and looked back over towards her own body.

In direct contrast to the mirth she was feeling however, her own face, standing just a few feet away from her, looked distinctly perturbed, complete with a frown and deeply furrowed brows. "Ara, please don't make such an expression, Himemiya-san." Shizuru requested with jollity. "You'll cause wrinkles on my face."

Chikane blinked. Then, she raised an eyebrow (the opposite one Shizuru usually raised) and folded her arms across her chest. "Is that really our largest concern right now?" She asked, though at least she wasn't frowning anymore, and even had an amused half smile on. It was definitely strange to Shizuru's ears, hearing her own voice speak in standard Japanese.

"Perhaps not _ours_, and not _right now_," Shizuru admitted, "but it certainly would cause me some difficulty later on. I'm not quite as young as you are, you know."

Chikane cocked her eyebrow again, but then simply laughed, shaking her head ruefully. "Fair enough. But putting that aside right now, shouldn't we discuss our current predicament a little more seriously? I mean, this is quite unusual you know. There must have been some sort of hallucinogen inside that curry; I fear we may be higher than kites right now. Tell me, Fujino-sempai, why would Suzushiro-sempai want to do this to us? And, if you don't mind, could you stop groping my breasts? That's somewhat distracting."

"Ara, must I?" Shizuru continued to jiggle Chikane's mammaries, marvelling somewhat at the bounce they had in the mirror. "But they're so nice."

"Yes, well," there was a hint of exasperation in Chikane's voice (just a small hint). "It's not like you don't have them yourself."

"But mine are different." Shizuru replied simply, though she did comply with the other girl's request, turning back to face her and holding her hands politely in front of her.

"How do you figure? I believe yours are even a little larger..." The look on her face suggested that Chikane was resisting the urge to confirm this statement as brazenly as how her upperclassman had done.

"Oh, my dear Himemiya-san," Shizuru's eyes twinkled. "If you have to ask that, you are obviously not a connoisseur. Size has nothing to do with it!" _After all,_ Shizuru thought to herself, _Natsuki has the undisputed nicest chest in all of Fuuka._

A sweatdrop appeared overtop of Chikane's head (now THAT was a strange sight indeed, Shizuru decided. She didn't think such an item had _ever_ graced the top of her chestnut colored hair before). Before Chikane could say anything else, Shizuru laughed and spoke first. "In any case, Himemiya-san, I suspect that we are not the only ones, as you say, higher than kites at the moment. As you noticed, Youko-sensei seemed to think that we were perfectly fine, so, whatever it is, it's not just affecting us." She paused. "Perhaps the hallucinogen is now airborne through our breaths and is now affecting everyone who comes within speaking distance to us?"

"And just what support allows you to make a leap to such a conclusion?" Chikane asked, though the expression on her face suggested that she didn't _not_ like the possible explanation.

"Why, none, of course." Shizuru admitted. "It was simply conjecture. As we really don't know what happened, this will require some further investigation. We should probably talk to Suzushiro-san and ask her exactly what she was attempting to feed us..."

"I agree," Chikane nodded, and turned towards the door.

"... but perhaps it would be prudent to wait a little while to do so?" Shizuru finished, a little quicker than she would have liked.

Chikane turned back to face Shizuru, surprised. "And why would that be the case?"

"Well, when it comes to Suzushiro-san, one really needs to be careful about how one approaches her," Shizuru replied slowly, "as she does have a tendency to mistaken mole-holes for ant hills, and then the ability to transform those ant hills into mighty mountain ranges. Who knows. Maybe this will wear off on its own?"

Chikane considered this thoughtfully. Shizuru could tell that the other girl didn't relish the thought of having to deal with Haruka either. "Do you mean to just... let this continue, Sempai?" The other girl finally asked.

"Come now, Himemiya-san." Shizuru smiled playfully. "Where's your sense of adventure? When would we ever have a chance like this again, to try out each other's skins? Let us have a spot of fun. What could the harm possibly be?"

Chikane thought about this for a moment, and then gave Shizuru a half-lidded stare. "... you mean to prank Natsuki-sempai, don't you?" She deadpanned.

Shizuru laughed, putting up her hands in a 'calm-down' pose. "Ara, I am caught red handed. I trust you will not ruin my fun?" Shizuru continued to smile as charmingly as she could, knowing the effect would be great, as she had witnessed before just how disarming Chikane's smile could be (and how effective it was in getting the girl what she wanted). "Worry not; I will treat your body respectfully, as I am sure you will treat mine with equal reverence."

Chikane closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, Shizuru could see a somewhat familiar spark of mischief in her own ruby red eyes, and the familiar charismatic smile of her own. "Very well, Fujino-sempai. Similar to the wrinkles; are we agreed that we shall not do anything that may cause the other undue trouble?"

Shizuru's smile almost became a grin.

They didn't have to shake hands. Possibly because neither actually wanted to define exactly what 'undue trouble' covered.

* * *

Shizuru suspected she really _was_ high. The ridiculousness of the utterly outrageous situation she found herself in should have prompted concern and disbelief to be the dominant emotions within her but all she felt was absolute giddiness! So much so that she couldn't stop giggling to herself as she walked down the hallway, startling a couple of students. While not quite a stick-in-the-mud, Chikane was a fairly serious and demure student.

Coughing into her fist, Shizuru scolded herself for letting her mirth get the better of her, and tried to school her expression into the almost haughty neutral look Chikane usually wore. She pulled the schedule that Chikane had hastily jotted down for her out of her pocket, and headed over to her classroom where her class had an open study period. Opening the door, she could see most of her classmates were lounging about and playing with each other, with no one actually studying, of course.

_Hmm... what would Himemiya-san do in this situation? Would she care that no one's doing what they're supposed to be doing?_ Shizuru wondered. She cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. "Ano..." Twenty nine pairs of eyes looked over at her curiously. Shizuru smiled weakly. _Well, she's not going to care today._ "... never mind. Carry on, everyone." She hurried over to where Chikane noted her desk was (third row back, window seat) and sat down.

Within moments, Mikoto had hopped up onto her desk, literally just crouching on it, her skirt hiking up a little to show the edges of the shorts she wore underneath. "Hey, Hime! We heard there was an explosion! Are you okay?" She moved her face forward until it was well within Shizuru's personal space, peered closely at her, their noses almost touching.

"Ah, I'm fine, Mikoto, thank you for asking." Shizuru replied calmly. "It was just a... a minor explosion, that's all. I'm not hurt."

Mikoto frowned, sitting back on her haunches, a look of obvious confusion on her face. "Why are you talking like Shizuru?"

Shizuru's left eye almost twitched. Almost. "Ara, I mean, oh dear, I am?" She laughed politely (almost nervously, not quite), hiding her mouth behind her hand. With tremendous effort, she forced herself to speak in as accent-free, newscast standard Tokyo-ben as possible. She succeeded. Mostly. "Sorry, I must have been in her company too long. Her accent is rubbing off on me."

"Oh. I see." Mikoto planted her butt on Chikane's desk and thrust her legs out so that her feet rested on Chikane's neighbour's desk – Yuuki Nao's. "Shizuru rubbed off on you."

Nao sniggered as she tapped idly on her cellphone. Giving Mikoto and Shizuru a sly look out of the corner of her eyes, she smirked. "Don't say that too loudly, Mikoto. You're likely to start a nasty rumour."

Mikoto cocked her head to the side, confused. "Huh?"

Shizuru regarded Nao with an arched look. Casually turning to look at the girl, she put an elbow on her desk and supported her chin with her hand. "I'm sorry, Yuuki-san," she said briskly. "Does that make you jealous?" Her smile was equally cool. "And if so, who of?"

Nao looked stunned, obviously not expecting such a response from who she thought was their straight laced, highly proper, student council President. She almost dropped her phone.

Meanwhile, Mikoto looked all the more confused. "I don't get it." She said loudly, scratching the top of her head. "So Nao wants to rub off on Hime too? Or on Shizuru?"

The entire class suddenly got very, very quiet, as the remaining twenty seven pairs of eyes stopped what they were doing and looked directly at the conversation's participants. A pin could be heard dropping in the silence, a tumble weed blowing across the floor, a cow mooing in the distance.

Nao turned beet red.

Mikoto's eyes shrunk to confused black blots on her face while giant question marks danced over head.

Shizuru retained her completely calm composure. If she had a cup of tea, she would have sipped from it. But she didn't, so instead, she turned to face the front of the room again, taking some papers out from her desk and casually shuffling them. "Well now, Yuuki-san," she said with the driest tone she had ever heard Chikane use, "if that's the case, then I can tell you that you'd have far, far better luck with me than Shizu, I mean, Fujino-sempai."

Meanwhile, on her way walking across campus, a sudden chill went up Chikane's back and she sneezed.

* * *

The rest of Shizuru's day went largely without incident. Chikane's 10th grade classes were a piece of cake for her, and she didn't have a student council meeting that afternoon as they had met during lunch that day. Wandering around campus for a little while after class, Shizuru sought out all the normal places she would have expected to find Natsuki, and couldn't see any sign of the 2nd year student. The amount of random people who seemed to know her and wanted to say hello however, was quite long (almost as long as the list of people who routinely greeted Shizuru herself), and Shizuru found it a bit of a nuisance having to feign knowledge of the other person. Realizing that the best way to avoid a blunder was to not be in the public eye so much, Shizuru decided to head back to Chikane and Natsuki's shared room, where, to her surprise, she found Natsuki at the coffee table doing what looked like, of all things, homework.

The 2nd year student looked up in surprise when Shizuru came in the door – mirroring the look on Shizuru's own face. "Hey." Natsuki greeted. "You're home early."

"Aren't you as well, Natsuki? Sempai?" Shizuru added the respectful address a little belatedly. She walked over to the coffee table and peered curiously at the various note and text books open.

Natsuki wrinkled her nose in explanation. "Calculus test, first period." She muttered, as though that explained it all.

"Ah." Sitting down opposite Natsuki, Shizuru opened Chikane's school case and brought out some of the younger girl's classwork. "Do you mind if I join you?"

Natsuki shrugged, moving some of the books out of the way. "Be my guest. I've always told you the coffee table was more comfortable than the kitchen table anyway."

So Shizuru opened up some topic or other and started feigned taking notes, when she noticed Natsuki was looking at her weirdly. "Yes?" She asked.

"Aren't you going to change out of your school clothes?" Natsuki asked. She was already in a pair of shorts and tank top, the early summer heat starting to affect her.

"I may have to step back out," Shizuru lied smoothly.

"Oh." Grunting in understanding, Natsuki went back to her books and Shizuru told her heart to stop beating so quickly. Luckily for Shizuru, a few moments later, she got a text from Chikane (advising her that she may have failed her English pop quiz that afternoon), and she was able to use that as a convenient ruse.

"Hmm. It appears that I no longer have to step back out," Shizuru mentioned idly as she tapped a response back to Chikane (informing her that she'd better study harder for the next one then. Not that Shizuru actually cared; her grades were good enough that she could take a few zeros, although that might result in Haruka finally ranking above her in the grade standing. But that might also be a good thing; she could use that to balance out any 'undue trouble' she had probably already landed the other girl in with Nao). Thus responded, Shizuru got up and went to Chikane's closet where she picked out a pair of lounge pants and a T-shirt she remembered seeing the other girl wear once before.

Shizuru froze as she held the articles of clothing in her arms and wondered if Chikane changed in front of Natsuki, or if she changed in the bathroom. Looking in the mirror as casually as possible, she noticed that Natsuki's attention was entirely focused on her schoolwork, even as Shizuru took off her blazer and started unbuttoning her shirt. _Hmm. I guess she changes in front of her then,_ Shizuru decided as she was able to finish undressing and redressing without Natsuki seeming to react at all. The complete lack of any sort of tension in the air at all intrigued Shizuru greatly; she realized that whenever _she _changed in front of Natsuki before in the past, the biker always seemed to be... aware of the fact.

Going back to the coffee table, the rest of the early evening went largely without incident. Natsuki continued to study while Shizuru continued to pretend she was doing the same thing although she mostly had one eye on Natsuki the entire time and was wondering just how she could go about pranking the other girl so as not to waste this precious opportunity. At first, Shizuru had thought about getting it over with quickly, and then sharing the laughter, but the longer she stayed incognito in front of Natsuki, the more intrigued she was by Natsuki's reactions, or more precisely, the lack thereof.

It actually took Shizuru a little bit of time to realize why she was so fascinated, why Natsuki seemed so different to her right now from how she normally was: Natsuki was _completely comfortable_ in front of Chikane. The epiphany actually brought a pang of anxiety to her heart as she realized that there were others in this world beyond herself that Natsuki was close to, and even potentially, it appeared, closer still. Natsuki didn't blush. Natsuki didn't sneak looks at her. Natsuki didn't get angry or flustered when she finally caught Shizuru looking at her. She simply cocked her head to the asked, "what?"

"Nothing," Shizuru replied, feeling a little disquieted, but able to keep the emotion from her face. "I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"What you were going to make for dinner," Shizuru finished. At least, Chikane had told her it was Natsuki's turn.

"Hmm. Are you hungry?" Putting her pencil down, Natsuki wandered over to the fridge and peered inside. "I can make sukiyaki? Or do you want omelette rice?"

Shizuru was a little stunned. Natsuki? As a domestic creature? Now this had to be seen to be believed! "Whichever you'd like," Shizuru replied, doing a decent job of keeping the surprise from her voice.

Natsuki considered this and decided to go with the omelette rice. Within a few more minutes, the frying pan was out, and Shizuru watched Natsuki make dinner with little pomp and circumstance. It shouldn't have surprised her, really. Natsuki had lived alone in her own apartment before Nao had destroyed it during the Festival, though Shizuru seemed to recall her diet being made up mostly of instant.

"Where'd you learn to cook that?" Shizuru teased, when Natsuki put the omelette rice down in front of her. "I seem to remember stories about a cake incident in which you proved unable to even crack an egg."

Natsuki blushed (_finally!_ Shizuru thought. She was beginning to wonder if perhaps the other girl was also body swapping at the moment). "Yeah, that was before spending weeks with Mai and Mikoto," she finally said, poking at her own food. "There was no way I could live down Mikoto being a better cook than me. But, um, you might want to look out for eggshells. I think I missed a few pieces."

"I'm sure it's delicious." Shizuru replied, spooning some rice into her mouth (though she did follow Natsuki's advice to look out for eggshells). And indeed, it really was good, Shizuru decided. Even more so due to the fact that it was made by Natsuki for _her_.

After dinner, they finished their respective studying and then turned on the TV. Natsuki pulled out the controllers and handed one to Shizuru without explanation. Shizuru blinked at the item curiously before accepting it. Video gaming was not one of her pastimes, and she was surprised that Chikane could play at all, but when Natuski grinned and said, "I'll go easy on you this time," Shizuru realized that the current student council President probably couldn't play well.

They popped in a cartridge and Shizuru noted that it was the same one Natsuki had been playing with Mikoto before. Natuski was completely owning her much like the wild child had completely trounced the biker last time.

"So how was your day?" Natsuki asked at some point during the play.

Feeling a bit frustrated at constantly losing, but quite sure that Chikane wouldn't have thrown a fit (and so neither would she), Shizuru was a little surprised with the question. "It was... well, actually, it started off a little strangely, but it's become a really good day." She finally admitted with a smile. It really had been.

"Oh? How so?"

"Yukino-sempai and I had a lunch meeting with Suzushiro-sempai and Fujino-sempai. And, for some reason, Suzushiro-sempai decided she wanted to cook. She made curry."

"Wait, Haruka?" Natsuki looked over at Shizuru incredulously. "How was it?"

"... Explosive."

Natsuki laughed. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly like it sounds. We ended up in the nurse's office."

Now Natsuki's expression became tinged with concern. "Seriously? Is Shizuru alright?"

Shizuru blinked. She couldn't help but feel a warm gooey sensation in her heart at Natsuki's obvious concern for her. "She's fine, I am as well, thank you for asking." She said, her tone dry as she knew Chikane's would have been, masking the giddiness she actually felt.

At that point, there was a clacking sound at the door, as someone slipped a letter in through the mail slot. Both girls turned to look at the mail slot, surprised.

Shizuru blinked, confused, when Natuski suddenly leapt to her feet, grabbed a handy pillow and whapped Shizuru in the face, causing her to fall over backwards on the bed she was sitting on the edge of. By the time she had recovered and sat back up, Natsuki was already at the door, and had triumphantly grabbed the letter that had come through.

_What in the-?!_ Shizuru could only look at Natsuki, stupefied, while Natsuki grinned victoriously at her and crowed. "Aha! This one is for you!"

Shizuru continued to blink confusedly at Natsuki for a moment, her complete incomprehension taking much of the wind out of the other girl's sails. "What are you talking about?" Shizuru asked, still feeling horribly confused.

"Hah! I'm not buying it," Natsuki replied smugly. "I told you I'd get revenge next time YOU got one of these! Heh. It came sooner than I thought it would." Ripping open the envelope, Natsuki cleared her throat, and started to recite. "My dearest Hime-sama," she intoned.

And suddenly, the pieces fell into place as Natsuki read verbatim one of the better, less cringe-worthy love confessions Shizuru had ever heard in her life (and having been the recipient of many a love letter herself, she was in a unique position to appreciate how bad they could get), and realized that from Natsuki's words and actions, that both roommates must have received love letters before in the past and ribbed each other about it.

Shizuru experienced a very strange, conflicted sensation of horror mixed with happiness as, on the one hand, she couldn't help but wonder just how many love letters Natsuki herself must have received, but on the other hand, she was also having a hard time ignoring the words of love that Natsuki was reciting to her at the moment. In the end, there really wasn't very much Shizuru could do except sit there with an strange blended expression of discomfort and excitement on her face which she supposed wouldn't have been very far off from the expression Chikane probably would have had.

By the letter's end, Natsuki's ears were bright red, as was her face, but she was grinning as the embarrassment wasn't for herself (for once), but rather due to empathy. "... by the shoe lockers tomorrow evening after class." She looked over at Shizuru and chuckled. "Hey now, how about that, Chikane? Do you want to go meet them? I think this one's a girl."

Shizuru considered this. She wasn't sure if the other girl would go or not. Would she take the time to respond (positively or negatively)? Did she normally just ignore these things?

Luckily, before she had to respond, Natsuki simply closed the letter up and handed the envelope over to her. "There." She said, still smirking. "Now we're even. I'll leave your letters alone if you leave mine alone. Truce?"

Shizuru opened and shut her mouth a few times and then finally chuckled. "Truce." She paused when Natsuki sat down to continue their game. "Natsuki-sempai? Have you ever responded to these things before?"

Natsuki gave Shizuru a queer look. "You know I haven't."

And Shizuru could not help but feel relieved with the answer. Still, feeling her heart beat a little faster, she cocked her head to the side as she knew Chikane tended to do when she was feeling inquisitive and pressed a little further. "Why not?"

Natsuki frowned and raised an eyebrow. "... you already know why." She replied. "Hey, are you feeling alright, Chikane? You're acting... weird."

Realizing that she was going a little too far, Shizuru laughed as disarmingly as she could. "I am, aren't I? Forgive me, Natsuki-sempai. It's been a little bit of a weird, but good, day."

Still giving Shizuru a funny look, none the less, Natsuki turned her attention back to the game.

They went to bed around eleven or so, after they'd both taken showers. While Natsuki was in the shower, Shizuru corresponded with Chikane that yes, indeed, she would appreciate being able to spend the night, and that they'd chat in the morning to consider their next steps.

Chikane's reply had been:_ '... please don't do anything I wouldn't.'_

To which Shizuru had simply replied: _'... now where's the fun in that?'_

As she laid down in Chikane's bed, wearing the nightgown the other girl slept in, Shizuru thought back to the events of the evening. Studying. Homework. Dinner. Games. TV. Laughing.

In other words, it had been a completely normal, average, boring school night. And at that moment, Shizuru couldn't help but feel massively jealous of the girl whose body she was borrowing for being able to share this with Natsuki. Every. Single. Day.

Sighing, Shizuru wondered if Chikane wouldn't mind letting her stay in her body for a while longer, though she somehow doubted it. She looked over at Natsuki, who was in her own bed, on her side, and facing away from her. She should probably prank her while she still had the chance.

Getting out of Chikane's bed, Shizuru quietly crept across the room and climbed into Natsuki's bed, snuggling in beside her and spooning her. Natsuki's body tensed up upon contact. Shizuru grinned to herself. Any second now, and she could imaging the other girl's flustered,_ 'what are you doing?!'_

That never came.

Instead, Natsuki... relaxed.

Shizuru frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Suddenly, Natsuki turned around and rolled over, and before Shizuru could realize what happened, she found herself on her back, straddled around the hips by Natsuki, who was looking down at her triumphantly. "Took you long enough to get over here," Natsuki smirked, her emerald eyes twinkling.

Shizuru's eyes widened. Her heart plunged into her stomach. What was Natsuki doing?

Natsuki put her hands on the sides of Shizuru's – Chikane's – face, cupping her cheeks. "I've been waiting for this." She lowered her head downwards to look Shizuru in the eyes, and Shizuru was stunned to see Natsuki's face so close to her own, and her eyes so filled with unreadable emotion.

Shizuru wanted to cry. Was this... was this really the true nature of the bond between Natsuki and Chikane? "N-Natsuki..." she whispered.

And then Natsuki's lips twisted into a grimace. "Gotcha!" She simply said. Suddenly, Natsuki's tender grip on the sides of Shizuru's face became pinches and Shizuru found herself pulled upright and throttled back and forth by her face. "Dammit all, Shizuru, I know it's you! You idiot! What are you thinking about Chikane and I?"

By the time Natsuki finally stopped throttling Shizuru, she was feeling somewhat dizzy, and her cheeks smarted something fierce. Rubbing her cheeks impishly, she looked over at the other girl who had a furious tick around her eye. "Ara," Shizuru smiled sheepishly, reverting back to Kyoto-ben. "Did Natsuki know it was me all along?"

"Of course." Natsuki said flatly. "Chikane texted me while you were in the shower. Holy CRAP, Shizuru! What was that? Did you really think that Chikane and I were...!" She made a guttural sound of disapproval. "Did you feel ANY sort of sexual tension between us at all?" Natsuki exasperated. "I mean, didn't it feel completely different from..." and then Natsuki floundered, suddenly blushing wickedly. "...from... us?"

Shizuru's eyes went wide when Natsuki's words hit her with the force of a tidal wave. "N... Natsuki?" She asked, softly.

And suddenly, she became complete aware of the weight of Natsuki, still straddling her, the heat from Natsuki's legs, still snaked around her hips, the heave of Natsuki's breathing, her tank top rather revealing as it had become somewhat mussed up with the rolling around, and the fact that Natsuki herself was suddenly appreciative of all those sensations too.

Natsuki jumped off of Shizuru like she was on fire, tangled herself up in the covers, and fell on the floor with a *bam*!

Shizuru... sweatdropped. It was a completely alien sensation to her, but somehow, managed to happen anyway.

"Okay, you need to go back to your bed, er, Chikane's bed, right now," Natsuki said very quickly, as she picked herself up with as much dignity as she could muster. "It's late. And I do have that calculus test first thing. Can we talk after that?"

Shizuru opened and closed her mouth a few times. Finally, she settled for nodding, not quite sure how to hide the blush across her cheeks, and went back over to the other bed in the room. "Goodnight, Natsuki."

"Goodnight, Shizuru." Natsuki replied.

Unfortunately, that tension that hadn't existed until Natsuki had so brashly pointed it out, persisted into the night, and neither of them was able to get much rest.

Shizuru's heart insisted on racing through most of the night, her thoughts all a whirl, as Natsuki's words, and the implications behind them, kept her wide awake, with yearning, with longing.

With hope.

* * *

Chikane and Shizuru remained stuck in each other's bodies for the next two days and Chikane began to wonder if she should be worried for her body's sanctity. While she was more or less still confident that her pact with Shizuru still stood, and that she really didn't have to worry in that regard, her reputation, on the other hand, was starting to suffer from all sorts of fantastical rumours that were sprouting all over campus, from insinuations between her and Yuuki Nao, to how strangely she was acting in her roommate Kuga Natsuki's presence, to being caught dozing off in the middle of class too.

One morning, Chikane decided to go to archery practice to see how Shizuru was faring at the activity, and was quite horrified to see Arisugawa-sensei also in attendance. With no training in archery at all, and two nights of insomnia dulling her concentration, Shizuru, in Chikane's body, wasn't even coming close to any of the targets, much to the worried gossip of most of her fellow club members.

Arisugawa-sensei even had the audacity to say to Shizuru, "you know, Himemiya, I mean this for your own good. You have no talent for archery at all. You really should join fencing instead. Why are you so attracted to this club?"

_The absolute nerve of that woman!_ Chikane almost visibly bristled at the comment, enough for Shizuru to notice her agitation, and Shizuru simply said that just because she wasn't good at something didn't mean she didn't enjoy the activity. "After all, Sensei," Shizuru even went on to say cheekily, "it's obvious that you are not very comfortable or good at talking to students, and yet you continue to insist on doing so."

Juri did bristle, before finally shaking her head and walking away.

"Thank you, Sempai," Chikane said to Shizuru afterwards. "I couldn't have put that better myself."

"Why do you dislike Arigusawa-sensei so much?" Shizuru asked. "I quite like her, myself. Did she do something to offend you?"

Chikane couldn't quite tell Shizuru the truth in that regard. Actually, she wasn't really able to explain it herself. There was just something about the other woman that rubbed Chikane the wrong way. She did know, after all, that Himeko worked for the tangerine haired woman, and had photographed her on many occasions too when Juri was still modeling. Maybe it was simple jealousy that Juri could talk to Himeko whenever she wanted to, while Chikane herself just wasn't confident enough that she'd achieved enough in life (be that years or accomplishments) to even make first contact.

Sighing, Chikane simply said, "I just have no interest in fencing at all, Sempai. My mother also does not approve of swords, so I see no point in taking up a sport that would antagonize her, especially since I have no natural love for it in the first place."

"Ah, I see." Shizuru stifled a yawn. "I suppose that could be somewhat trying."

Chikane frowned at Shizuru. "What are you doing at night that leaves you so tired in the morning?" She asked, rather bluntly.

Shizuru shot Chikane a dry look. "Everything in my power to keep your body virginal."

Chikane colored.

The two looked at each other somewhat awkwardly before finally breaking down into a fit of embarrassed giggling, the utter ridiculousness of the situation straining even the most stoic of sensibilities. "Oh my god, Chikane-san!" Shizuru finally managed to say, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of her eyes. They had finally started to address each other on a first name basis as, well, there were few situations two individuals could find themselves in that would bond them together tighter. "I don't know how much more of this I can take! To have Natsuki so close by, every night...!"

Shizuru didn't have to say anymore.

Chikane couldn't help but feel happy for the older girl. Since befriending Natsuki, over the course of the last several months, Chikane had thought she had detected a slight... evolution in her roommate's feelings towards the older girl. They were small things, really, like always enquiring if Chikane had seen Shizuru that day, and how she was doing. They had also had a couple more (rather frank) discussions about same sex attraction as well, and Chikane had been somewhat amused by all the questions Natsuki had asked.

Once upon a time, she would never have thought herself capable of having such discussions, and indeed, there were many questions of Natsuki's that she still hadn't been able to answer, though she had tried her best. She thought back to all the times she had seen her mother counselling some student or another about some life crisis or another, and had come to understand that even if one didn't have the answers, if one could offer at least an ear, then that was oftentimes enough.

"In any case," Chikane said, switching gears to address the more pressing issues. "I think it's the curry. I believe I've managed to convince Suzushiro-sempai to try to make more of it. It's a long shot, but I think, maybe if we ate it again, we'll be able to switch back."

"Well, anything's worth a shot at this point," Shizuru agreed. "When can Suzushiro-san make the curry again?"

At this point, Chikane sighed. "I'm afraid it might be a while. She didn't have any more so she went off to India herself to get some and I believe she took Yukino-sempai with her."

They considered the quagmire they were in for a while longer before they both sighed.

After another pause, Chikane looked over at Shizuru. "Shizuru-sempai, is it alright if we studied together tonight? I think it might be best if you did your own assignments. Your professors are starting to worry about your sudden drop in grades."

"Ara, I'm surprised," Shizuru gave Chikane a teasing smile. "And here I thought the infallible Hime-sama of Fuuka High would be able to handle first year university classes with little trouble."

"Maybe if you weren't already taking second and third year courses your first semester," Chikane retorted dryly. Honestly, that had been a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Chikane hadn't had to worry about scholastics, well, ever. To suddenly be plopped in an academic situation she couldn't handle had been unexpected and frustrating to say the least.

Shizuru only smiled. "Is there anything else I should know about?"

Chikane hedged for a moment. Finally, she nodded. "Yes. Director Himeno sought you out the other day and said a couple of things I didn't particularly understand."

Shizuru frowned. "And what would that be?"

"Something about the first district cleaning up, but that they were not seeking retribution, so not to worry."

"Is that so?" Shizuru's frown disappeared and she looked completely at ease. Somehow, Chikane didn't quite believe the serenity being presented to her by her own face however. "Ah, well, if Director Himeno said not to worry, then I won't. And neither should you, Chikane-san."

Chikane considered this for a moment, before finally nodding. "... I won't then." Still, Chikane could not help but feel a little worried, and a little guilty. She wondered if she should have let the older girl know how the entire conversation had gone, verbatim.

_"Fujino-san," Fumi had said, a frown on her face. "I thought I should let you know that I've received reports that the First District had some recent activity in the caverns. I've investigated it further, and I believe they were simply cleaning up."_

_Blinking at the woman, Chikane had had no idea how Shizuru was expected to respond to that, so she simply put on an unreadable expression and said as calmly and smoothly as possible, "... I see."_

_Fumi had looked at her curiously, as though she had been expecting an entirely different reaction, so Chikane had thought it safest to simply frown and look away from the other woman. She hadn't expected Fumi's next words, spoken softly, and with kindness. "... please don't worry, Fujino-san. I do not believe they will seek retribution, as we are not enemies anymore. It was war, after all, and going after the head of the enemy is an accepted strategy."_

_Still not knowing how to respond to that, Chikane had simply kept her mouth shut, and wondered just how ruthless the business of private education actually was, to use such aggressive metaphors._

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in deepest, darkest India, Haruka and Yukino found themselves inexplicably beset by mountain climbing, tightrope walking, surfboarding elephants.

"What the hell?!" Haruka cried, running for her life. "How is this even possible?!"

* * *

Things went back to normal a couple more days later, when Haruka and Yukino finally returned to campus, sun-kissed and sporting comical bandages all over the place, but ultimately triumphant and in possession of another package of 900 BillionX curry. Chikane was all over Haruka to make the damn curry already, and when that was done, both she and Shizuru looked at each other gravely, and took a bite.

There was another explosion, and once more, the former and current Presidents were rushed off to the nurses' room.

* * *

Natsuki knocked cautiously on the nurse's door and then poked her head in when she heard Shizuru's familiar Kyoto-ben say, "come in." Walking into the room and closing the door behind her, she could see Shizuru – or at least, Shizuru's body – standing by the open window, looking outside.

Then Shizuru turned around, and smiled, and Natsuki could tell from those ruby hued eyes, and the way her heart suddenly started to beat a little faster, the way her body got a little warmer, that it really was Shizuru standing in front of her.

Natsuki smiled back, relief flooding through her. "Oh thank god, it _is_ you." She breathed, coming further into the room. She looked around. "Where's Chikane?"

Shizuru giggled. "I think she's freaking out in a bathroom somewhere."

Natsuki raised an eyebrow. "_Chikane_ and _freakout_ don't belong in the same sentence." She couldn't help but feel a smile tugging at her lips. "What did you do?"

"The splits. For about an hour. Just before we switched back." Shizuru laughed. "She really shouldn't have spoiled my fun that first night by tipping you off."

That smile turned into aghast. "What the hell?" Natsuki cried, staring at Shizuru incredulously. "What is she going to think you've done with her body?"

"Whatever she will." Shizuru's smile was completely serene. "Come now, Natsuki. Don't worry so. She trusts your gallantry if not mine."

Natsuki snorted. Gallant. She had felt everything but that for the last few days. While the domestic bliss of living with Shizuru for the last few days and evenings were some that Natsuki was sure she'd treasure forever, the nights themselves had been torturous.

And yet, Natsuki was also thankful for them as well.

If she hadn't spent the last five nights lying on her back, losing sleep, staring at the ceiling, knowing that Shizuru was just a few feet away from her, and feeling her heart race all night, the evidence of her growing attraction to the other girl may never have piled up obviously enough in front of her own eyes for her to finally admit it to herself. And then, where would she be? Still stuck, unsure of the exact nature of her love for Shizuru, unsure of her feelings. She still wasn't entirely sure, really. What if it was a phase? What if she was just curious? But she hadn't felt that way for Chikane, ever...

When it came to making her heart (and other organs) race, there had only ever been one who could accomplish that.

Shizuru sighed. "It was an entertaining week. I suppose things are back to normal now, and I will no longer have such access to Natsuki." There was a hint of regret in Shizuru's voice.

Natsuki bit her lip. Was she ready? Gods, she still wasn't sure. But if the last week had taught her anything about herself, it was that she wanted to try. Really, really, wanted to. "What if you did?" Natsuki asked softly.

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

Natsuki couldn't bring herself to repeat her words.

So instead, shyly, with brightly blushing cheeks, and her heart pounding in her ears, she tilted her head up, closed her eyes, and lightly pressed her lips to Shizuru's own.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The tagline for the 900 BillionX curry in this fic is indeed the actual tagline for the curry from Utena (or at least they are according to the scripts at ohtori. nu). I can't eat spicy things at all, but I would totally buy cases and cases of anything that marketed itself as, "will blow you to smithereens and cause phantom elephants to trumpet loudly."

Yes, I am aware that in the Utena anime, it wasn't actually the curry itself that caused the body swap, but Anthy's terrible cooking. I just couldn't resist.

Many thanks to DezoPenquin again for the inspiration!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Privacy for the First Time

[CHIKANE in SHIZURU'S body enters into SHIZURU's apartment. CHIKANE looks around excitedly and confirms that no one else lives here. Goes into the bedroom and sits on the bed.]

CHIKANE: Wow! I can't believe for the first time in 15 years, I FINALLY have privacy and a bedroom to myself! Oh, joy!

[CHIKANE continues to sit on the edge of the bed, drumming her fingers against the edge of the mattress.]

CHIKANE: Hmm! What does a teenage girl do when she has a bedroom to herself for the first time in her life?

[CHIKANE continues to sit on the edge of the bed, drumming her fingers against the edge of the mattress.]

CHIKANE: ...

[CHIKANE looks around the room and notices the posters of scantily clad women plastered all over the walls. Continues drumming her fingers against the edge of the mattress.]

CHIKANE: ...

[CHIKANE grips the edge of the mattress tightly.]

CHIKANE: [Hangs her head and sighs] ... why did I promise to treat her body with equal reverence?

* * *

OMAKE 2: Running Joke II

[It's the scene in Chikane, Mikoto & Nao's classroom.]

MIKOTO: I don't get it. So Nao wants to rub off on Hime too? Or on Shizuru?

[ENTIRE CLASS suddenly gets very, very quiet. A pin is dropped. A tumble weed is blown by a fan across the floor by some stage ninjas. Outside, a cow (well, two cows) begin to moo. Cut to outside the window.]

HARUKOW & NANAMOO: Moooou.

[HARUKA and NANAMI slide onto the scene, weeping on each other's shoulders]

HARUKA: It's okay, Nanami-san, it's okay. It'll get better.

NANAMI: Says you! At least you've had two chapters with lines now!

* * *

OMAKE 3: Another Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[SHIZURU's Kyoto-ben can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

SHIZURU: Next time, on _Revolutions_, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, Chikane does the entire chapter without pants! And I don't mean she's wearing a dress either!

CHIKANE: What?! But I thought next chapter was supposed to be plot heavy! How am I supposed to-

SHIZURU: Dignity, Himemiya-han! Dignity!

CHIKANE: What does that even mean?! How can I- oh. [Reads the script] It's the beach episode, isn't it?

SHIZURU: Bingo!

CHIKANE: Wow. Is the author resorting to pandering already?

SHIZURU: No, I think she's just more pervy herself than she'd like to admit. As evidenced by some of the jokes in this chapter.

CHIKANE: ... speaking of which, you do realize I owe you payback, don't you?

SHIZURU: [Simply smiles serenely] Ara, in any case, please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 7 – 'The Beach Episode'.


	8. Chp 7 - The Beach Episode

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 7 (The Beach Episode)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

By Jen-chan

jen-chan

January 28, 2013 –Feb 3, 2013

Word Count: 8,400

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

Shortly after her last exam let out, Chikane phoned home. It was the last day of the spring semester, and she would be off for summer vacation for the next six weeks. As she had promised her mother that she'd be home for the holidays, Chikane did not relish having to make this phone call, changing the plans. Still, she had to face the music sooner or later.

"Hey, Chikane!" Utena's happy voice could be heard over the line after a couple of rings.

"Hi, Okaa-sama," Chikane replied, smiling fondly upon hearing the unbridled joy in her mother's voice. "Sorry it took me so long to call."

"That's alright, I understand you're a busy girl." Despite her saying so, Chikane could tell that her mother would have enjoyed more frequent calls from her. "Did you just finish your last exam?"

"That I did," Chikane replied.

"Great! So you must be on break now, right? When are you coming home? I've got a bunch of grading to do, but I can meet you at the station tomorrow anytime after 2 pm. Will that work?"

"Sorry, Okaa-sama," Chikane's brow furrowed apologetically, the action carrying the regret into her voice. "But, I was hoping to stay at Fuuka for a few more days..."

"Oh." Utena was obviously crestfallen and Chikane wanted to kick herself for causing her mother such disappointment. "Why? Did something happen?"

Chikane sighed. "Well, there's a couple of things, actually," she admitted. "Firstly, there's a few things I need to finish up for the student council. We're holding an event called the Kazahana Scholarship Fund Benefit Gala either towards the end of summer vacation and I've got a few proposals to get through from various business groups related to it. There's a couple of meetings that I should attend too, so I was hoping to get through that before I came home. That should only take a couple more days, but, well, actually, a few of my friends were planning a short vacation to the beach next weekend, and I was hoping to join them..."

"Oh!" And suddenly, Utena's voice perked up. "That sounds like fun! Geez, Chikane, you don't have to sound so sorry! I get it – sure, go ahead! It's important to have time to hang out with your friends. Did you bring your swimsuit?"

"I did," Chikane replied, feeling somewhat relieved that her mother was fine with this. She had suspected she would be, as the woman had been concerned during Chikane's youth about her lack of real friends, but she also knew her mother missed her keenly. "But, that's, uh, not what I'm apologetic about..."

Now Utena sounded curious. "Oh? What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid I haven't seen Chu Chu in a while."

"Oh, that's no big deal," Utena laughed. "You know she disappears for days at a time. She'll show up again when she's hungry."

"But, Okaa-sama, it's been over two weeks."

"... really?" Now Utena sounded a little worried. "Hmm... that is on the longer side..."

"Yes," Chikane replied, frowning. Much like her mother's initial reaction, she hadn't been fazed at all when the marmoset had disappeared. That was completely normal. She had only realized that the family pet had been gone unusually long when she realized that one of the packages of snacks she kept around for her had actually passed its expiry date. Shortly after that, she started leaving all sorts of Chu Chu's favourite foods out to try to entice the mouse-sized monkey back, but the only thing she'd succeeded in attracting were several stray cats, much to Natsuki's exasperation, and Mikoto's delight, when she thought her feline friends were suddenly buddy-buddy with her human ones.

Chikane nodded, though her mother couldn't see the action. "I also feel as though she's been disappearing for longer and longer durations, more and more often as well. I was hoping to spend the next few days looking for her."

"That might not be a bad idea," Utena finally agreed. "But, don't worry too much, alright? Chu Chu is nigh indestructible after all. Remember when she was staring down that frog from the balcony for three days straight? She didn't move for food or rain or even pigeons! I'm sure she'll be alright."

"I hope so too," Chikane replied, still feeling somewhat uneasy.

"Anyway," Utena switched gears. "Hey, so I was wondering. Has my surprise shown up yet? You haven't said anything."

"Your surprise?" Chikane lifted an eyebrow. "No, I don't think I've received anything like that. Did you send it through the mail?"

"If I told you that, it wouldn't be much of a surprise now, would it?" Utena laughed. "Well, never mind! I can tell by your reaction that she must not have shown up yet. Don't worry, you'll know when she arrives! Hopefully it'll happen before you come back home for break. And you'd better call me when it does happen, okay?"

Chikane couldn't help but laugh, finding her mother's joy infectious. "_'She'_?" She asked.

"Ah! I've said too much!"

* * *

The ferry was running a little late, much to Juri's annoyance. She was not a woman who liked waiting on the best of days. She frowned as she looked at her watch. Eventually, the boat docked and the passengers started to disembark. She waited for what seemed like forever, her eyes scanning over every face for the one she was looking for. When the ebb of people slowed to a bare trickle and she still hadn't spied her guest, Juri began to worry.

Suddenly, without warning or provocation, warm arms encircled around her neck from behind and Juri could feel the weight of someone leaning into her back in an embrace.

"Juri-chan!"

And then that sweet, high voice playfully singing out the syllables of her name made all the waiting in the world worth it. Feeling a smile come onto her face, Juri turned around and saw that Kurusugawa Himeko had made it off the ferry without her noticing, and had actually crept up behind her and even managed to surprise her with a hug. The warmest of smiles graced the bottom half of Himeko's face, and her amethyst eyes sparkled brilliantly in the morning sun. Her tawny hair had been cut to shoulder length, half tied back with a bow that made her seem younger than she really was.

"Himeko, you made it," Juri greeted warmly, moving her arms around the smaller woman's waist and pulling her close to give her a tight hug. Her tickled lips sought and found Himeko's smiling own and she gave the other woman a long kiss, her heart celebrating with skips at once more being able to taste such sweetness. Once upon a time, such a warm, open, public, embrace would have been beyond Juri's capabilities; it was for the sake of winning and keeping this sparkling gem in her life that Juri had finally been able to present herself to the world for who she really was.

When they parted, Himeko had a bit of a blush on her cheeks, the kind that always made Juri want to see more of. She took one of Himeko's hands in her own while lifting the backpack that Himeko had put on the ground onto her own shoulder. "Is that all your luggage?"

The photographer nodded happily. "That's me."

Juri's eyes danced as she led Himeko towards where the car was parked. "You always travel so light. Sometimes I think you mean to disappear on me in the middle of the night." She chuckled.

She understood why the photographer did this though; Himeko was constantly travelling, off to new and exotic locales, and a decade of near constant travel had diminished any desire she had for material goods. With no family and no home to tie her down, after finishing community college, the photographer had liquidated what meager assets she had, bought a decent camera, and then went where the work was, or wherever interested her. Himeko's passport had been stamped through more countries than even Juri's own (which was saying something), and she often went abroad with nothing more than said passport, her camera, a laptop and the clothes on her back. Indeed, she had once told Juri, that for a couple of years, that was all she had to her name. It wasn't until only relatively recently that Himeko had finally started to get more stuff – mostly decent clothes – though those tended to stay in Juri's closets. Or on her floor.

"Well, I still can't promise that I won't do that. Again." the photographer teased. "Oh, come on, Juri-chan, don't be mad." She gave Juri a quick apologetic peck on the check when the red headed woman frowned.

"Hmm." Juri replied in noncommittally. She looked away from the other woman, not wanting Himeko to see the cloudiness in her eyes as she stifled a sigh. Two years together, and Himeko was still flighty as a bird, ready to leap into the wind and let it blow her where it may. She didn't want the photographer to know how much that bothered her. She didn't want her to know just how much she'd missed her, the last few months. After all, Himeko had promised to come visit back in the middle of May, but due to a surprise, last minute engagement, the photographer had gone running around Europe instead, and now, weeks later, when she'd finally arrived in Fuuka, it was already July.

"So where are we off to?"

"Let's drop off your things – little though they are – at my place first," Juri suggested. "I'm still in the visiting professor's residences on campus. If you want, we could take a walk around there first? It might actually be pretty lively. The kids just got out of classes yesterday."

"Sure!" Himeko replied. "I've heard that Fuuka's got a beautiful campus. Maybe I'll get some good shots."

Juri smiled. Though she had made the suggestion, she somewhat doubted that they'd make it very far out of her apartment. Since Himeko could get up and go with a moment's notice, Juri wanted to treasure every moment she had with her.

* * *

Natsuki smiled as Shizuru finally came out of her apartment tower, wearing a matching smile, as well as a summer cardigan and a pair of shorts. She was carrying a large beach bag over one shoulder. Under the cardigan, Natsuki could see the purple floral pattern of the swimsuit Shizuru had on underneath.

"Sorry I'm late," Shizuru said, as she went up to the other girl and then gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Natsuki couldn't help but blush, though she was pleased. She still wasn't used to thinking of Shizuru as... as her girlfriend yet, so public displays of affection still made her blush (though she suspected that would continue happening regardless). "That's okay," Natsuki replied, idly scratching a red cheek as she handed Shizuru her helmet. "Everyone else has gone on ahead to the beach on the bus, so we can take our time." She looked down at Shizuru's outfit a little worriedly. "Are you sure you don't want to wear the full leathers?"

Shizuru made a face. "It's too hot, Natsuki. I'm surprised you can stand to wear your full gear in this weather."

"The wind actually gets pretty cold," Natsuki insisted.

"Then I'll just have to hug you more tightly I guess." Shizuru winked.

Natsuki blushed again. Taking Shizuru's bag, she put it into one of the saddlebags on her motorcycle, and hopped on. Shizuru was about to put her helmet on when her eyes lifted in recognition. "Ara, if it isn't Arisugawa-sensei. Good afternoon."

Turning to look where Shizuru was looking, Natsuki could see the flame haired instructor walking up to them, holding the hand of another woman with hair very similar in shade to Shizuru's own. Natsuki almost boggled at the sight. Though Shizuru had told Natsuki about the instructor's known preference, she'd never expected to actually see such an open admission of a relationship between two adult women. It also took Natsuki a moment to figure out why the teacher looked so different from usual, before she realized it was because she'd never seen the normally serious woman with such an expression of fondness on her countenance before. And judging by the way the instructor's fingers were interlaced with the woman beside hers, Natsuki could guess who the cause of the good mood was.

The teenager couldn't help but feel weirdly... happy, staring at the intertwined hands of the older pair. Subconsciously, she found herself turning her eyes back onto Shizuru beside her, and wondering what the older girl would look like in another ten years, what _they'd_ look like.

The thought stirred butterflies in her stomach.

"Good afternoon, Fujino," Juri replied, coming to a stop just in front of the two students. She looked over at Natsuki and smirked. "You too, Kuga-kun." She looked at Natsuki's biking leathers. "Good to see there are some safety guidelines that you are willing to follow."

"Only the ones that make sense to." Natsuki smirked back. She had had a close run-in with the instructor only last week. The visiting professor's residences were on the top most floors of the tower that Shizuru lived in, and Natsuki had found herself unexpectedly sharing an elevator with the instructor a little after midnight on a school night after losing track of time at Shizuru's.

_It had been a rather awkward ride down, both of them silent. It was only when the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, and Natsuki had thought she'd gotten off scot free, had Juri finally said, "you know, next time you want to stay out late, I'd recommend not doing it while wearing the high school student's uniform. I can't actually let it slide if you're being that blatantly obvious about breaking curfew." _

Natsuki had then spent the next week helping out in the fencing club, which, while not the worst detention possible, wasn't all that fun for her either.

Juri's smirk developed a little bit of an edge. "But I could have sworn that high school students weren't allowed to ride motorcycles to school either."

The biker groaned. _Oh great. Not this again._ Settling in for a possibly long and drawn out argument about her personal rights and freedoms, Natsuki was pleasantly surprised when she didn't have to.

"Oh, Juri-chan, don't be so strict," the woman with tawny colored hair said to the instructor. "It's summer vacation after all. She's not technically in school at the moment."

The flame haired instructor raised an eyebrow and looked like she didn't want to agree, but in the end, simply sighed. "I suppose a warning would do."

_... wow. She is completely whipped. _

Looking over at the woman who had saved her from lecture or detention or worse, Natsuki grinned at her and decided that she liked her. The tawny haired woman simply smiled kindly back at her.

"Ara, Arisugawa-sensei is far too kind," Shizuru's highly amused voice entered the conversation. "Come along now, Natsuki. We should get going. We're already late." She tilted her head downward to the instructor and her companion politely. "Have a good day, Arisugawa-sensei."

Taking the hint, Natsuki put her helmet on, and waited for Shizuru to do the same before they roared off.

It felt marvelous having Shizuru's arms wrapped around her waist, but mindful of the other girl's state of dress, and knowing that road rash would be the _best_ outcome in case of accident, Natsuki was very careful to keep her attention on the road as she drove the both of them down to the beach.

When they got there, they could see that Fuuka's beaches were jammed packed with people young and old, all decked out in summer wear skimpy and fun. Parking the bike, Natsuki and Shizuru wandered about the sand for a little while, until they came across their group of friends, sitting under a pair of umbrellas in a prime piece of sandy real estate on the beach.

"Natsuki!" Mikoto shouted happily at the top of her lungs. "Over here!" The wild child was wearing her blue one piece, her goggles dangling about her neck. Beside her stood Chikane, wearing sunglasses and a white button up shirt (though currently unbuttoned), over top of a navy and white thin stripped bikini. She had pulled her voluptuous blue-black hair back into a ponytail. With them were Tate and Mai, and Takumi and Akira, all seated under the umbrellas. Mai was in her yellow-green bikini, while Tate and Takumi were in swim trunks. Akira was in a magenta one piece underneath a dark green hoodie, and looking a little uncomfortable.

"Hey, you made it!" Mai grinned happily when Natsuki and Shizuru came by and set up their own towels beside them.

"Of course we made it," Natsuki replied, giving Tate and Takumi a hooded stare. Both gentlemen hastily excused themselves to go get some drinks, and Akira decided to join them. Only then, did Natsuki finally start to unzip out of her biking leathers to reveal the strapless blue-green two-piece she was wearing underneath. Shizuru also took off her cardigan and wiggled out of her shorts to reveal her purple, flower pattern one-piece. "Why wouldn't we?"

Mai rolled her eyes. "Well, you two were held up at Shizuru's place for so long, I thought you might have decided to just spend the whole day there."

"That would have been nice too," Shizuru chuckled, looking over at Natsuki. The younger girl did not miss the mischievous look in her girlfriend's eyes, which caused her to color instinctively.

"Stop insinuating weird things," Natsuki muttered, folding her own racing leathers into a nice pile and laying it down on the towel to act as a pillow. She laid down on it with her hands behind her head. Looking up at the clear blue sky, Natuski felt strangely... at peace. The last time she'd gone to the beach had been in the midst of the Festival, and her mission that night had crowded her mind with gloomy thoughts.

To actually be at the beach with friends having a good time...

_It feels nice. Really… nice. _

Idly, she let her eyes wander over to Shizuru, and she couldn't help but appreciate the curve of her girlfriend's bosom. _It was funny,_ Natsuki decided. Though Shizuru's swimwear was the most conservative, Natsuki also found it the most provocative, somehow. Natsuki looked over at her friends. Even when compared to Mai, whose breasts were barely contained by her bikini top, or Chikane, whose cleavage was also quite prominent through her unbuttoned collared shirt, somehow, Natsuki thought Shizuru had the most allure out of all of them.

Chikane smiled wryly at her roommate when she noticed her looking. "Natsuki-sempai, is it wise to appreciate others' bodies so openly when Shizuru-sempai is right here?"

Mai and Shizuru both laughed and almost said in unison, "she's just jealous."

Natsuki slapped a hand over her face. _Why am I always the butt of all boob jokes?_

Mikoto didn't help when she clapped a hand on Natsuki's shoulder in camaraderie. "It's okay, Natsuki." She said firmly. "Ours will grow."

Natsuki sweatdropped. "... sure, Mikoto." She finally settled for saying. "Sure." She harrumphed and looked up at the sky again when she heard Mai laugh.

Presently, Shizuru's smiling face came into her field of vision, her hand holding onto a plastic squeeze bottle. "Let me put sun block on you?" She asked.

The perfectly innocent request still brought a blush to Natsuki's cheeks, and she realized with resignation that it wasn't just her friends insinuating weird things; her own brain was perfectly capable of doing the same too. While she liked the idea of Shizuru's hands on her, she wasn't sure how she liked the idea of this happening in front of all their friends. Still, she didn't want to burn...

Nodding, Natsuki flipped over onto her front, and rested her head on her arms. Head turned to the side, she found herself looking at Chikane, who had sat down and was reading a book, even as Shizuru's warm hands started to work the lotion onto her shoulders. "What's with the shirt?" Natsuki asked Chikane.

"Hmm?" Looking over at her roommate first, Chikane then looked down at her own attire. "Oh. I burn easily." She said simply.

"Hmm. Maybe Shizuru should put sun block on you too-waaargh!" Instinctively jerking up when she felt the clasp of her bikini top open, Natsuki then quickly flattened her front to the ground. Whipping her head over to stare at Shizuru incredulously, her emerald eyes wide with embarrassment, she cried, "what are you doing?!"

"You don't want tan lines, do you?" Shizuru asked innocently, though her ruby red eyes twinkled with anything but innocence.

Well, no, she didn't, but still...!

Then Shizuru turned her smile over onto Chikane. "Shall I do your back too, Chikane-san?"

Chikane coughed politely into her fist and turned her attention back onto her book. "No thank you, Sempai. I'll... take my chances."

Just then, Natsuki felt the wholly disturbing and morbid sensation of something pulling her undone bikini top out from under her. Before she could stop it, she spied a familiar purple-grey monkey speeding away from her, 'chu!'ing happily and holding an equally familiar blue-green bikini top in her paw. Natsuki's eyes widened in mortification.

_Oh no._

"Chu Chu!" Chikane gasped, pulling her sunglasses from her face when she spied her family pet. "There you are!" Getting up, she tried to follow the monkey mouse, somehow managing to still be graceful while scrambling, with Mikoto right behind her.

The two girls ran right past Tate, Takumi and Akira, coming back with a few small bags of snacks and drinks. When they returned to the umbrellas, they were greeted by the sight of Mai rolling on the ground, laughing and laughing and laughing, while Natsuki was sputtering obscenities at her best friend, her beach towel awkwardly clasped to her obviously otherwise bare upper torso, while Shizuru looked on, an expression of bliss-tinged amusement on her face.

* * *

As much as she was loathed to, even Suzushiro Haruka had to admit to herself, she just wasn't the life of the party. The summer bash to end all summer bashes she'd been hoping to throw at the Suzushiro family's Vacation Villa Number 25 was deader than a doornail and Haruka was beside herself with frustration. Dozens and dozens, maybe even hundreds of invites had gone out, and there was going to be enough food from the number one caterer on the island to feed an army. She even had a popular DJ coming in the evening... and the seven classmates who had arrived so far had all looked around, hung out for a few minutes, and then made excuses to leave.

"I can't believe this!" Haruka cried out loud, tugging on her hair in frustration. "What do I have to do to get people to show up to one of my brashes?!"

"Bashes, Haruka-chan..." Yukino said quietly, though she didn't answer her best friend's question. She didn't have to. Her expression said it all, really.

Last year had been Haruka's most successful party ever, the one she had held to thank the volunteers of the founders day festival. And even Haruka had known that the only reason the villa had been rocking was because of Shizuru and Reito's adoring fans.

The two friends were standing on the impressive open air balcony of the villa, clad in bathing suits, and overlooking the beach jammed pack with people in direct contrast to the isolation of the villa. Haruka smashed her forehead against the railing in frustration. It was luckily a very well made safety barrier.

"Mikoto said she was going to the beach today, with Mai-san and Natsuki-san," Yukino said softly, also leaning against the balcony beside her oldest friend. "They're probably out there right now. And if Natsuki-san's there, then..."

Haruka smashed her forehead against the railing a few more times (it _really_ was a high quality piece of work to hold up to the abuse!) Finally allowing the splitting headache she'd given herself to drown out the bitterness of defeat in her heart, she growled out. "Fine. Just get those bubuzuke-onna's over here, and let all the guests know that they're going to be here tonight too."

Yukino sighed and whipped out her phone while Haruka went back inside to get a cold compress for her head.

That did the trick.

Over the course of the afternoon and early evening, a steady stream of excited and happy young people began to trickle into Villa number 25, a great many of them card carrying members of the Hime-sama fan club, with an even greater number more holding onto the Fujino card. And though the current and former presidents had not yet arrived, there were enough people around to really give the place a sense of life and fun, especially since most everyone had been at the beach anyway, and was still thus dressed. Haruka's mood improved greatly as folks began to relax and have fun, even with her.

A little after dinner time, Shizuru finally showed up with Natsuki, as did Chikane and the rest of their friends, everyone still clad in beachwear. Shizuru had put on a flowy and transparent pirate-shirt on over her purple one-piece. Chikane was still wearing the unbuttoned collared shirt over her swimsuit, though she'd pushed her sunglasses up into her hair. Both their legs were unadorned (save for flip flop sandals and a fancy anklet around one of Shizuru's ankles) and seemed to stretch up and up forever. The sight of their idols wearing what they were wearing, and walking into the party beside one another threatened to blow the roof right off of the villa. The fun, excited, frenetic energy in the place tripled...

... and then quadrupled again, when Shizuru leaned over and whispered something into Chikane's ear. The current president listened attentively to her predecessor, and then tilted her head to the side, looking back at the older girl with a curious expression on her face. The collective minds of the Fujino and Hime-sama fan clubs completely lost it when Shizuru followed this up by reaching out and fondly brushing a lock of hair out of Chikane's eyes and tucking it behind one her ears. In response, Chikane smiled back at the older girl, and maybe it was the lighting, but many pairs of eyes would afterwards swear that she _blushed_.

The fangirlish screaming was almost ear splitting, and Haruka thought she might go deaf from the squeals of glee. At the same time, Haruka could also feel her heart clench in jealousy. Oh! Why didn't people fawn over her every little motion and action?! Dammitall! And here she was, looking oh so gorgeous and sexy in her own provocative white strapless two-piece too!

To add salt to her wounds, despite this being _her_ party, Haruka couldn't even make it pass all the bodies clamoring around Shizuru to give her an earful for taking her spotlight! Instead, she found herself standing a little bit away, beside the baby grand piano and Kuga Natsuki instead, a strange expression on the high school student's face.

The former truant looked like she didn't know if she should be amused or perturbed, and one of her eyebrows was twitching furiously as she gazed on from afar at the former and current student council presidents. Her arms were folded across her chest, and it was obvious to Haruka that Natsuki wasn't aware that the purpley-red aura of displeasure flickering around her ominously was preventing a sizable group of girls from approaching her, adoration (and a little fear) in their eyes.

Haruka harrumped. "The nerve of that woman!" She muttered to herself as she crossed her own arms under her bountiful chest.

Apparently too wrapped up in her own ire to understand the nature of the indomitable blond's, Natsuki simply gave Haruka an irritated look out of the corner of her eye. "They're just hamming up the service for the fans..." Natsuki muttered with a snort.

"Fan service?" Haruka frowned, not quite understanding.

It was then that the former and current Student Council Presidents located their host with their eyes, and with polite apology, left their legion of adoring fans to come over to talk to Haruka and Natsuki (that they came to her mollified Haruka somewhat, and greatly improved her mood).

"Thank you for the invite, Suzushiro-san," Shizuru smiled easily. "This is a lovely party."

Haruka couldn't help but beam. "Yes, it is, isn't it?"

Shizuru then looked over at Natsuki, and smiled. "Thank you."

Natsuki frowned. "For what?"

"For winning me a bet against Chikane-san."

"What were you betting on?"

"That your reaction would be more 'jealous harrumph' than 'squeal of pleasure'."

Haruka didn't quite understand why Natsuki threw a punch at the tawny haired girl.

The party continued on into the night, and Haruka managed to have herself some fun.

It wasn't until a couple hours later, when she was beginning to wonder where the DJ was, did the next obstacle of the night present itself to her. One of Haruka's servants walked up to her, a frown on his face.

"Ojou-sama," he said delicately. "May I have a word?"

"Hmm?" Haruka went to him. "Yes, what is it?"

"Ojou-sama, I'm afraid we've just gotten a call from Suzuhara-san..."

_The DJ?_ Haruka frowned. "What did he say? Go on, spit it out."

"I'm afraid he's been detained by local law enforcement for suspicious activities, and does not know if he will be able to arrive for tonight's performance."

"WHAT?!" Haruka thundered, causing everyone in the vicinity to look directly at her, startled. She swallowed, and hastily lowered her voice. "What the hell!" Haruka hissed in a stage whisper. "I paid him a good advance to make sure he got his ass over here! What are the charges?"

"I believe they found a small amount of MDMA on him."

"Oh good grief." Haruka smacked her face with a palm. It wasn't unexpected at all that one of the most sought after DJ's in Tokyo's rave scene had ecstasy with him, but Haruka had had her people specifically tell his people not to bring that crap to Fuuka. What sort of a scandal would it have caused if Suzushiro Haruka, former Executive Director of Fuuka High School, in charge of upholding student morality, was found to be throwing a party with rampant drug usage?! Oh, the shame! She could never live it down!

The servant continued. "He is wondering if we would be willing to post bail for-"

"He can rot in jail for all I care!" Haruka snapped. Again, the people all around her stared at her with sweatdrops around their head, and she hastily lowered her voice. "Yukino!" Haruka hissed, waving her hand madly at her best friend. "Yukino!"

The Vice President of Fuuka High came quickly over to her best friend. "What is it, Haruka-chan?"

Haruka told her.

Yukino looked troubled. "Oh. Well, I'm glad he got caught then. It could have been trouble if he actually came here with it."

"I know, it's serendipitiduda alright," Haruka waved away that part.

"... Serendipitous?"

"Whatever. But what are we supposed to do about the entertainment for tonight? The DJ's supposed to start in 10 minutes!" She waved at the room of at least a hundred people, all laughing and joking, and some of them already dancing to the background music. Of course, it never even occurred to Haruka to start something late. If the show was supposed to begin at 9:00pm, then 9:01 pm was simply unacceptable.

Yukino whipped out her phone. "I'll try to get a replacement. In the meanwhile..." Her eyes scanned across the room, and of course, they landed on the largest knot of people in one corner of it. She looked back at Haruka and cringed.

Haruka groaned. "Dammitall, why does this always happen to me!?" Stalking over to that corner of the room where Shizuru and Chikane were socializing with a wide circle of people, she almost had to bodily push herself through the crowd to get to the two popular girls and their friends. Glowering mightily at the crowd, she managed to disburse most of it, leaving only the two girls and their friends – Natsuki, Mai, Mikoto, and Tate.

"Fujino, I'm calling in that favor." Haruka said to the tawny haired girl. "I need you to entertain the guests."

Shizuru looked confused. "Favor, Suzushiro-san? What favor are you referring to?"

Haruka frowned. "Don't act dumb, Fujino."

But Shizuru only continued to frown.

Unexpectedly, Himemiya Chikane coughed into her fist beside the tawny haired girl, getting everyone's attention. She gave Shizuru a significant look. "I'd suggest that you comply with Suzushiro-sempai's request, Shizuru-sempai." She said quietly.

And now the frown on Shizuru's face took on a bit of an amused upturn. "Oh? And why is that, Chikane-san?"

Chikane looked sheepish for some reason. "Well, you did say that you owed Suzushiro-sempai one for going all the way to India to get that particular brand of curry you liked so much. Indeed, I believe you told her you'd grant her one favor to do whatever it was she asked of you..."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. "Did I now?"

"Yes, you did!" Haruka exasperated. It had been a triumphant day for her, that. She wasn't about to let the bubuzuke-onna claim ignorance! "And now I'm calling it in. Fujino, help me out. My DJ is... indisposed. I need you to entertain the crowd until the backup plan arrives."

The tawny haired girl sighed. "Very well, Suzushiro-san, but what do you propose I do? A song and monkey dance?"

Chu Chu, sitting on Mikoto's head and stuffing a banana into her face, looked over at Haruka and Shizuru and gave a small 'chu?' of inquiry.

Both university students stared at the marmoset for a moment silently, before Shizuru sighed, and Haruka smacked a palm against her face again.

"Well I don't know!" She scanned across the room, and then her eyes fell upon the baby grand piano that they were standing beside. While the Stein was usually nothing more than a decoration, as none of the Suzushiro family could be called musical, of course, it was in fine repair and well tuned. "Wait a second, you play the piano, don't you?"

Shizuru shook her head. "Actually, I do not..." she trailed off and looked over at Chikane.

The significance of that look was not missed by any of the circle of friends, and soon, everyone was looking over at Chikane.

The young student council president frowned. "I'm sorry, but I don't know if I'm-"

She was cut off when Mai grabbed her hand excitedly. "Chikane-san, I've heard you play before! You're marvelous Why don't you let everyone listen?"

Chikane's eyes crinkled. "Actually, I'd rather-"

But Haruka, having found her lifeline, wasn't about to let go of it. Grabbing Chikane's hand, she announced in her thunderous voice, "hey, everyone! We've got a special treat tonight! Student Council President Himemiya Chikane is going to play the piano for us!"

* * *

The crowd hushed over as Chikane found herself the centre of attention she really didn't want to be. Looking over at Shizuru, the older girl had an apologetic expression on her face, and Chikane realized that in the face of so much peer and public pressure backstopped with the immovable mountain that was Suzushiro Haruka's stubbornness, there were moods that even the mighty Fujino could not necessarily sway.

Frowning, Chikane slowly lowered herself onto the piano bench, and stared at the keys.

Once upon a time, a lifetime ago, such a performance would have been water off of a duck's back. She had performed in front of an entire school, in front of all of Mahoroba, really, and not been fazed. She had entertained her father's business associates at a moment's notice, some of the world's most powerful men, and not even felt her pulse quicken.

But that had been a lifetime ago when the finest of piano teachers had drilled her from toddlerhood, and the musical notation of Mozart and Beethoven had long been memorized and was easily re-callable by her muscles at a moment's notice.

In this lifetime, her repertoire was infinitely more private and personal, and consisted entirely of her own emotions moving her fingers instinctively across the keys, and not even Chikane herself ever really knew what she was playing or how it would ultimately turn out until she was finished.

The songs were always about Himeko, in some way. A thousand different chords and an infinite combination of notes, and her heart only ever seemed to have one thing to say.

_I'm sorry. I miss you. Wait for me. I love you._

_ Himeko. _

Chikane looked up, and gave her friends one last look, imploring them for rescue, but alas, they only looked on at her with excitement and expectation. Except for Shizuru. The older girl's brow was furrowed, and her eyes were begging forgiveness for being unable to stop this.

Chikane took a deep breath, and put her fingers on the keys. A second pair of ghostly, brown hands seemed to appear on the keys beside her. Seeing them caused Chikane to lift her eyebrows in surprise, and she looked beside her to see the ghostly image of the dark woman with long purple hair beside her, eyes obscured. She hadn't seen her ghost in a while, Chikane realized, though it was not entirely unexpected for her to appear here. She often appeared to help guide the requiems out of Chikane's heart, through her fingers, and onto the keys.

_I guess you have something you want to say tonight, then, do you?_ Chikane thought, though, of course, her ghost didn't answer her.

So she played, and a silence fell over everyone in the room. It was a perfect chamber for acoustics, the high vaulted ceilings bouncing the notes back again and again, and Chikane played a set of three songs, each distinct in their own way, but all of them indisputably unsettling and heartbreaking and coming from the bottom most depths of her heart and her soul.

By the time she was done, the entire room was dead silent. Many of the young people had tears in their eyes, many more staring at her openly. No one was quite sure how to respond to that... that rawness.

It certainly hadn't been what anyone was expecting. No one had ever expected the prim, proper and opaque student council president to bare herself in such a display.

Shizuru recovered first.

She clapped.

And the sound finally broke that heavy stillness in the air, and pretty soon, everyone started to clap, and then there was even a wolf whistle, and some scattered cheering.

Chikane didn't really hear any of that. She was looking at the ghost who was still beside her, wondering why she was still there.

Then, the purple haired mirage got up, and slowly walked away from the piano. She stopped, and looked back at Chikane, and Chikane could see the time in her ancient green eyes. When she turned and continued out the doors that lead to the garden, Chikane knew she was supposed to follow.

Wordlessly, she got up from the piano and went after the ghost outside, oblivious to the thunderous applause that was being given to her.

She didn't hear her roommate, when Natsuki called out to her, "oi, Chikane? Where are you going?"

She didn't hear her predecessor, when Shizuru gently held Natsuki's wrist to stop her from following, and said, "I think she wants a little time to herself."

She didn't hear her host, when one of Haruka's servants informed his mistress that a replacement DJ had been located and would be at Villa 25 shortly, and Haruka gave a happy cry of, "excellent!" and then raised her voice to tell all her guests of the fact.

Lost in a world all her own, Chikane followed the melancholy apparition out of the house, then out of the garden, and then further and further away from the lights and the laughter of her friends.

Chu Chu was the only one who followed her.

* * *

It was strange, Chikane thought, that no one had stopped her. She'd been walking for a while now, alone, along the beaches that were so full of people just that afternoon, now almost completely devoid of even a single soul, save for the odd straggler, or the lone couple, here and there. She didn't pay them any attention, nor did they to her.

She'd lost track of her ghost for a while now, and yet, she still felt compelled to walk, and for the life of her, she was not sure why. The night was warm, the full moon was high in the sky, and the gentle winds seem to encourage her along, blowing at her back.

Chu Chu had given up trying to walk behind her, and had climbed onto her shoulder. She was quivering and quiet, the odd 'chu' she made plainly plaintive. That should have been another hint to tell Chikane to turn back.

And yet, Chikane continued to walk, until the sand became gravel and then rock, and the ocean began to meet the edge of land in a series of rocky outcrops tough on feet. The moonlight played with the craggy cliff side that now loomed on one side of her, creating enormous gaps of blackness that could have just been shadow, or something far deeper.

And then she came to a stop.

Chikane should have known better than to enter the cave. Really, she did. Horror movies started this way, all the time. But she also couldn't help but be inexplicably drawn to the dark opening. It seemed to be whispering her name – not _Chikane_, but a name even older than that – in seductive invitation.

_... Aaaaaanthy... Aaaaaaanthy. Come here, Aaaaanthy..._

The winds blowing across the gaping maw seemed to whisper.

Chikane froze. Even as she stared at the cave, hints of a swirling, dark, malevolent energy began to develop at its mouth, slowly rotating, slowly spiraling, drawing her in.

Everything else in the world seemed to fade away, as Chikane's heart began to pound inside her head, even as she prayed to the gods, all eight hundred million of them, to please, please, don't let that swirling maw of darkness be what she thought it was, what she already instinctively knew it was, what it could only be.

Her past. Her future. Her deal with the devil, now back for her soul.

Chu Chu leapt off her shoulder to hide behind her ankle, shivering and keening piteously, huddled against her skin. Chikane couldn't even feel her pet's presence at all. She couldn't feel the monkey's fur suddenly stand on end, as her shaking got worse, and she actually bared her teeth at the gaping darkness.

She could hear footsteps coming out from the cave, clean, and crisp, as though polished shoes were walking on polished tile rather than sandy dribble.

And then, Chikane thought she could hear the unexpected, ghostly giggling of shadows...

_Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard what's new? The Prince is back, has been for a while, but there's going to be a new Demon too!_

* * *

It was the phone call that was every parent's worst nightmare.

"Oi, Tenjou? Your daughter's school is on the line."

Utena looked up from her desk in the teacher's office to see the vice principle looking at her with a bit of a worried frown on his face. Instant dread formed at the pit of her stomach and Utena got up. Walking quickly over to the phone, she put it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Tenjou-san?"

Utena recognized the high, feather-like voice of Director Himeno instantly, the woman who had interviewed her when she'd gone out to Fuuka earlier in the year for a job interview. "Director Himeno? Did something-"

"I'm afraid there's been an accident with Chikane-san."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

… Oh, Kannazuki no Miko's episode 7. How you hurt me so with your foreboding foreshadowing. -_-;;I'm trying to do you justice here with Revolution's own episode 7, but I am not sure if I have succeeded there...

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who's taken the time to leave a review. Thank you very much! Your comments really put a goofy grin on my face that stays there for hours and keeps me high for days. Several of you have wondered why there aren't more reviews, so, um, I kinda thought it might be good to let ya'll know that the review rate per view statistics are actually about right for my stories, so I'm not discouraged, and will keep plugging away. As some of you have pointed out, this fic does require not just reader familiarity but reader fondness for not just Mai Hime, but Kannazuki no Miko and Utena too, and those fandoms are much less active than MH, so I get it. I'm quite blown away that folks not familiar with the other two series would even bother to give this fic a chance, and would like to thank you very much once more for doing so!

Thanks again!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: False Advertising – Only 89% Pantless.

[A LAWYER is sitting down in a non-descript room with the AUTHOR. The AUTHOR appears somewhat distraught.]

AUTHOR: Okay, what did I do now?

LAWYER: I'm afraid that The Swords of Humanity I Mean Fandom's Hate has sought legal action and is now suing you for false advertisement. In the previous chapter, you had Fujino Shizuru announce that Himemiya Chikane was going to do the entire next chapter pantless, and I'm afraid that out of 7,338 words actually relating to 'story' in this chapter, that is, sans notes and omake, Chikane was actually pantless in only 6,499 of those words, or 89% of the time. 11% deficit is far too material a miss, so I'm afraid you will be taken to court.

AUTHOR: [Sputtering wildly] What?! But, um, uh, who says she wasn't pantless when she was in that first scene phoning Utena?! She could have been pantless!

LAWYER: Well, you did say she phoned home after getting out of her last exam, so we presume she would still have been on school grounds when she made the call, as she does have a cellphone. Unless you are suggesting she wrote her exams without pants as well?

AUTHOR: ... yes! Uh, yes! That is exactly what I'm saying!

CHIKANE: [Shows up in the room and smacks the AUTHOR upside the head with a mighty halisen]. The hell I would have!

* * *

OMAKE II: Yet Another Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episode

[TOMOYO's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

TOMOYO: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, I show up!

JURI: [Raises eyebrow] Why would you show up? Didn't the author say in one of her first notes that you were going to be a minor character of little significance?

TOMOYO: Ouch, Juri-chan. That's mean! How can you call one of your oldest friends 'of little significance'?

JURI: Well, this is supposed to be a KnM, Utena and Mai Hime cross over. The author said nothing about Card Capture Sakura. I'm just saying, Tomoyo.

TOMOYO: Hmm, well, I suppose the readers will just have to find out for themselves how I fit in. So please, stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 8 – 'First Contact, Blue-Green Eyes'!


	9. Chp 8 - First Contact, Blue-Green Eyes

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 8 (First Contact, Blue-Green Eyes)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

January 28, 2013 – February 17, 2013

Word Count: 8,500

NOTES: The characters from Kannazuki no Miko (KnM), Revolutionary Girl Utena (RGU), and Mai Hime (MH) that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include TNK for KnM, J.C. Staff for RGU, and Bandai for MH.

The main story takes place a few weeks after Mai Hime, about 15-16 years after the end of RGU, and about 15-16 years after the end of KnM.

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

_*FIVE YEARS AGO*_

The sound of her dressing room door opening and then clicking shut told Juri that it had to be Daidouji Tomoyo who had entered. No one else would have dared to disturb her, after the disaster that had just occurred on the set, not if they wanted to keep their heads attached to their necks.

"Juri-san..." Tomoyo said softly, in apologetic tones.

"You're fired." Juri replied flatly, not looking up from where she was seated in front of the well lit mirror, shielding her eyes with one hand.

Tomoyo sighed. "You can't fire me, Juri-san. I'm your boss. I hired you."

"You also hired the most insulting, smarmy, asshole piece of gutter trash photographer in the entire industry."

"I did, and I am sorry. I'll take full responsibility for that." The designer said quietly. "He's already been escorted off the premises by security. You'll never have to see him again." She paused. "How are you feeling?"

"How would you be feeling?" Juri snapped, finally looking over at the other woman, her blue-green eyes still ablaze with fury.

"Juri-san..." Walking over to the flame haired model, Tomoyo wrapped her arms around Juri's head and pulled her into a hug. Juri's eyes widened at the unexpected gesture and she would have bodily shoved Tomoyo away, except that the purple-gray haired woman's soothing words reached her ears first. "I'm sorry, truly, I am. That was a severe lapse in judgement on my part. Suzuki came recommended by a list of designers as long as my arm, but I should have realized something was wrong when we couldn't get a single model to work with him, which was the only reason why I asked you to step up in the first place..."

Still simmering, Juri let herself be held for a few more moments before she finally calmed down enough to gently escape from Tomoyo's embrace, and looked up at her friend's worried blue-grey eyes. "So what happens now? Do we have to cancel the shoot? Now there's a fortune down the drain." Juri had known that the fashion industry was brutal when she'd first decided to accept her long-time friend's proposal to start up a fashion line of their own, but she hadn't counted on everything that could go wrong, actually going wrong.

"Well, there is a backup photographer," Tomoyo admitted. "If you're up for it. She's new, and she doesn't have very many credits at all to her name, but, I gotta say, I did get a very good feeling from her when I first met her."

Juri thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Alright. I'll give it a try." Standing up, she tightened her dressing gown about her waist, and followed Tomoyo out of the dressing room and back out onto the set where _Miracles _was about to shoot for their first catalogue. Wanting to make a splash with their inaugural issue, it had even been Juri's idea to feature Tomoyo's lingerie line. Sex sold, after all, and Tomoyo had then managed to convince Juri to put her professional image on the line with the modeling.

The mood on the set was tense, to say the least, none of the crew members making eye contact with Juri. That suited her just fine. They'd all seen super model hissy fits in their time, but the way Juri had been handled, they could almost understand her melt down.

A small woman with long, tawny colored hair tied back with a bow was kneeling on the set, various lenses down on the floor in front of her. She put one onto her camera, looked through the eye piece, and then took it off to try another one.

"Kurusugawa-san," Tomoyo said gently. "Could you come here?"

The small woman looked up upon hearing her name, and then quickly got up to go to them.

Juri froze as the other woman approached.

She had the most marvellous purple eyes. They reminded Juri of Shiori instantly, back when they were children, young children, before puberty hit and everything went crazy. Shiori's eyes may have been a deeper shade of purple, but they had that same, innocent, guile-free purity about them.

Suddenly, on her way walking over, the woman tripped and those marvellous lilac colored eyes went wide as she began to fall forward.

Reacting by instinct, Juri quickly stepped forward and caught the photographer before she could destroy her very expensive equipment.

"Oh!" The small woman gave a cry of surprise when she was caught. She looked up into Juri's face, and those eyes, those beautiful, beautiful eyes, locked onto Juri's blue-green own.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments, before Juri came back to herself, and furrowed her brow. "Watch it," she snapped. "Where's your head at?"

"Sorry!" The woman peeped, quickly getting back to her feet. She bowed profusely. "Thank you! Um, my name is Kurusugawa Himeko! Pleased to meet you!"

"Arisugawa Juri," Juri replied back, coolly. "Let's just get this over with." Stalking passed the other woman, she climbed up onto the set, and narrowed her eyes when the bright lights prevented her from being able to see anything.

"Ah, hai!" Quickly following after Juri, Himeko adjusted the lights as quickly as she could so that they didn't blind the model and then gave some instruction to the crew regarding some of the other settings. Finally turning back to Juri, Himeko raised her camera. "Okay, Arisugawa-san. Whenever you're ready."

Juri clenched at her dressing gown protectively for a few more moments, until an aid came by to take it from her. Gritting her teeth, she reluctantly doffed the gown and handed it to him, leaving her standing in nothing more than orange and white, nautical themed bra, panties and high heels.

"Hai, thank you, Arisugawa-san." Looking through her lenses at Juri for a few minutes, Himeko frowned ever so slightly as she walked back and forth, studying the woman from a variety of different angles. Every once in a while, she'd ask the crew members to adjust various things about the set. Juri could feel the scowl on her face deepening as she wondered what was taking so damn long. But before Juri could snap the question, the photographer simply lowered her camera, and flashed her a reassuring smile that took the bite right out of Juri's mouth.

"Um, everyone!" Himeko raised her voice a little, so that the crew could hear her high, bell-like voice. "Could I trouble everyone to leave the set for maybe twenty minutes please?"

There was a murmur of confusion as the various crew members looked at each other and then, shrugging, did as the photographer asked them to do.

"Thank you! Oh, except for you, Daidouji-san, could you come here please?" Himeko smiled politely at the designer, tilting her head.

Looking amused, Tomoyo came over. "Yes? What is it, Kurusugawa-san?"

"You're wearing your own line of intimates at the moment too, aren't you?"

Tomoyo's eyebrows rose. She smiled faintly. "And what if I am?"

"Um, would you mind taking off your clothes?" Himeko asked, blushing a little bit at the brazen request. "I think it might make for the best result if you were in the shot with Arisugawa-san because... um, well, for several reasons. This is the first issue for your joint company, right? And you are the designer after all. Would you be able to stand behind your work for the camera?"

The designer laughed. "Is that what you want to see? What about makeup?"

"I can help you with that." Himeko replied, heading towards the makeup stand.

On the set, Juri couldn't help but feel a smile come onto her somewhat shocked face as Tomoyo turned around and regarded her with an amused smile. "Did you put her up to this, Juri-san?" Tomoyo asked.

Juri shook her head.

"Hmm." Tomoyo laughed, a little embarrassedly. "Well, since you are effectively challenging me on the quality of my work, I suppose I can't really say no." She started to unbutton her shirt.

The next twenty minutes went by quickly, and comfortably. Juri was amazed by how painless the entire experience was. Actually, 'painless' wasn't the right descriptor, she realized. She might have even had _fun_. By the time the crew had returned, both owners of _Miracles_ were back in their dressing gowns and sitting in chairs off to the side of the set, talking quietly between themselves.

"Thank you, Arisugawa-san, Daidouji-san." Himeko said. "I'll just go get these uploaded right away and will send them off to you for your review." Bowing respectfully again, Himeko turned to go.

"Wait," Juri called after her.

The tawny haired woman turned around. "Hmm?" Those marvellous amethyst eyes trained on Juri's own.

For some reason, Juri felt her heart skip a beat. She was wordless for a moment, before she blinked. "Next time we meet," she finally said, "feel free to call me Juri."

Himeko looked surprised for a moment, and then a shy smile came to her face. She blushed again. "Alright, Juri-chan. Please feel free to call me Himeko then." Bowing once more, she left the set.

Tomoyo chuckled as she looked at the expression on Juri's face. "Juri_-chan_?" She echoed. "Even I can't call you that."

Juri gave her business partner a sardonic look. "Well, I suppose you could too, if you wanted to."

* * *

_*FOUR YEARS AGO*_

"Bowling?" The look that Tomoyo gave Juri was decidedly incredulous. "Really?"

Juri gave Tomoyo a somewhat flat stare. "Is there something wrong with bowling?"

Tomoyo laughed. "No, nothing at all, it's just," she giggled, "I haven't gone bowling since I was fifteen! I wasn't even aware people bowled anymore. Oh, no offence, Juri-chan." She paused. "You... are still trying to _court_ Himeko-chan, aren't you?"

The flame haired fencer frowned. "Why are you asking me that?"

"Well..." Tomoyo looked discretely to the side.

Juri sighed. She sat down heavily in her chair. "Is bowling really so lame?"

Tomoyo really didn't have the heart to answer her old friend, so she asked a question instead. "Well," she said gently. "How much luck have you had so far with this... strategy?"

Juri frowned. "I've never brought anyone down to the lanes before. It's just normally something I do alone."

Now it was Tomoyo's turn to be surprised. "Something you do... Juri-chan, do you bowl regularly?"

"Regularly?" The flame haired woman gave a hollow laugh. "Tomoyo, I've been the district's ten pin champion for the last three years."

"Oh." Tomoyo laughed. "Juri-chan, are you good at everything you do, or do you only do things you are good at?"

Juri didn't dignify the question with a response. It wasn't like this was the first time someone had asked her something along those lines anyway.

"But in any case, that changes the situation a bit," Tomoyo hid an amused smile behind a hand. "Since it is an activity that you regularly engage in, then I think it is not necessarily a bad idea to show Himeko-chan such a side to you, as I'm sure she'll be pleasantly surprised by it. You _should_ still come off as sexually viable to her afterwards, although, to be perfectly honest with you," and now there was a hint of exasperation in Tomoyo's voice, "there are_ dozens_ of other date activity alternatives and I'm somewhat disappointed in you for not coming up with something better."

The fencer gave the designer another hooded stare, before lightly rapping her on the head with her knuckles. "This isn't a date, but thank you for the observations from the peanut gallery," she said sarcastically.

* * *

_*THREE YEARS AGO*_

Juri paced back and forth in her living room, scowling and perturbed. She kept this up for several minutes until finally, her irritation getting the better of her, Juri sat down in her chair and brought out her cellphone to send Tomoyo a text that most lesbians in the fashion industry received regularly from their closest friends: _You bitch._

Shortly thereafter, the designer wrote back. _Okay, did something crawl in your dinner and die?_

Juri frowned. As if the other woman even had to ask. _You. For asking Himeko out on her birthday before I could._

Tomoyo's response only prompted Juri's frown to deepen. _What are you talking about? Isn't she with you? _

It didn't take Juri long to put two and two together. Getting out of her chair, she grabbed her jacket and buzzed down to the concierge to know that she'll be requiring her car. As she drove over to Himeko's hotel, she made a pit stop at a wine store and bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white (as she wasn't sure what the other woman preferred). After a few more moments of thinking, she decided it was probably safer to also get the bottle opener and a couple of glasses too; she didn't think the photographer would have even these essentials. Oddly, she wasn't angry at the other woman for lying to her (though with anyone else, she probably would have been livid). Instead, there was a curious sensation of fluttering butterflies in her stomach.

Cautious hope.

That the small, tawny haired woman had refused her invitation likely meant that she was aware of Juri's attraction for her. That much, Juri was quite certain.

That Himeko would then come up with an excuse about other plans, rather than simply saying she didn't feel attraction for Juri, suggested to her that, maybe, there_ was_ a chance Himeko was indeed attracted to her. This, she was less sure of.

That the photographer would then try to use _Tomoyo_ as a cover for her, and then try to use _her_ as a cover for Tomoyo, rather than another friend, suggested that there really wasn't anyone else in Himeko's life at the moment. Or that she was simply, a terrible liar. Juri decided that both of those things were likely true.

Arriving at the hotel, she made it up to Himeko's room and knocked on the door (a task not quite as simple as it sounded as she held two bottles of wine in one hand, and two wine glasses in the other).

Himeko answered the door wearing a simple tank top and a pair of shorts and her eyes went wide. "Oh!" She swallowed. "Juri-chan! Um, w-what are you doing here?"

Juri opened her mouth to say something witty, but to her surprise, she couldn't come up with anything; the sight of the other woman, despite being so casually dressed, simply took any words she might have had out of her mouth. Instead, she held up the glasses and the bottles and gave the other woman the most heartfelt smile she could muster. It was actually quite brilliant. "Happy Birthday?"

"Oh!" Obviously trapped by her poor attempt at lying, Himeko hedged for a moment, before finally opening the door further. "T-thank you," she stammered out, accepting the bottles. Her hands were too small to also grab the glasses. "Um, do you want to come in?"

"Yes." Stepping into the hotel room, Juri looked about it and noted that it was apartment style – meant for longer term stay – so it had a kitchenette as well in the room. Despite this, and the fact that Himeko had already been staying there for several days, there was no evidence of her really _living_ in the space. The lights were dimmed, but neither the television nor the laptop were turned on. Instead, on the coffee table in the room, there was what looked like a simple photo album – the only personal effect in the entire room – opened to the middle somewhere.

As Juri looked at the photo album, Himeko quickly walked over to it and closed it. Then, she came back over to Juri, blushing to her toes, and Juri mostly forgot about the photo album, greatly distracted by the other woman's comeliness. She idly wondered why she found the other woman so attractive when she blushed; she was quite certain that she herself just looked like a tomato, on the rare occasion that she found herself red-faced. "I take it Tomoyo cancelled?"

Coloring further, Himeko looked at her feet. "... I'm sorry I lied," she said in a very small, very sheepish voice.

Sighing, Juri simply set the glasses down on the counter, and then gently took the bottles of wine from the other woman too, also putting those down. "That's alright." Juri looked around the empty hotel suite. "Do you really prefer to spend your birthday alone in your room than with me?"

"No, of course not," Himeko replied quickly, and Juri was glad to hear the open honesty in the other woman's voice. "Here, can I take your jacket?" Taking the item from Juri, she went to the closet to put it away before coming back. "I just... well..." Himeko continued to blush. "I was just scared. I guess."

"Scared?" Juri stifled a groan. Honestly, was she really as bad as everyone said she was? She frowned. "Do I still scare you?"

Himeko looked up, confused. "Still scare…? Oh, no." She shook her head emphatically. "No, Juri-chan, you've never scared me." She smiled meekly. "It's hard to find someone scary when they're in their underwear the first time you meet them."

Juri smiled sardonically.

"No, it's just... _this_." Himeko waved her arms about in front of her with a somewhat helpless expression on her face. "_This_ scares me." She bit her lip and looked away, obviously still feeling awkward.

Juri raised an eyebrow. The sardonic smile on her face softened into a kind one. "... would it help if we opened the wine?" She brought the bottle opener out of her purse.

"Gods, yes, please," laughing weakly, Himeko accepted the tool and went to the kitchen. "White or red?"

"Your choice."

Himeko went with the red, and came back a few moments later, handing a glass back to Juri. Juri ended up sitting on the couch while Himeko curled up in the chair in front of the now-closed album. Himeko took a (surprising large) taste of her wine, and then looked at it appraisingly, playing with the stem of her glass. "This is nice, Juri-chan," Himeko said. "Pinot?"

"I never would have guessed you'd know anything about wine," Juri admitted, smiling as she took a sip of her own.

"Oh, I don't, really." Himeko admitted. "But I did spend a little bit of time in a small border town between Italy and France a few years back, at a vineyard. The owner was really nice, and taught me a little bit about wine." Himeko thought about it for a sec. "Oh, what was her name again? Altena-san? Ah, yes. Altena-san, I think."

"Oho. And what were you doing in this little border town?"

"Hmm? Well, I guess I was just looking for a few good shots. I was still trying to submit to a couple of nature magazines at the time, and it really was picturesque there. A friend I met in France suggested I go there if it was photos I was looking for, now who was that..." Himeko's face screwed up in concentration as she thought. "Ah! Mireille-san. I haven't talked to her in a while. I should look her up, next time I go back."

"Next time?" Juri smiled, happy to be learning so much about the pale haired photographer. "Are you going back to Europe soon?"

"Oh, no," Himeko shook her head. "I'll be going to America next, I think. I've got a shoot lined up at the Kaleido Stage, with Layla-san."

"Layla-san..." Juri raised her eyebrows. "Do you mean, Layla Hamilton?"

Himeko nodded.

Juri was impressed, having met the formidable woman once herself. "How did you meet her?"

"The Ogasawara zaibatsu booked a special show at the Kaleido Stage once, for Sachiko-san's birthday." Himeko laughed. "It was very cute. She invited almost all of her old classmates and acquaintances from Lillian to the performance, and I knew Tsutako-san from the photography club."

They laughed and chatted, animated and happy for the next several hours. Himeko regaled Juri with all sorts of tales about all sorts of people she'd met as she had traveled the world, while Juri told Himeko about what the Olympics had been like, how bittersweet silver was. They traded horror stories about the catwalk, and even talked a little bit about their families. Juri was sad to hear that Himeko's parents had passed away early on in a car accident, and Himeko was sympathetic when Juri let Himeko know how poorly her own family had reacted to her preference.

It was late into the night, and both of them were feeling a bit tipsy, when Himeko finished her last story, leaning in conspiratorially and whispering, "... never visit the Chilean hotsprings alone with Shizuma-san again!"

Juri shook her head in disbelief, chuckling weakly. Whoever this Hanazono Shizuma was, she decided, the woman was absolutely ridiculous.

The laughter was contagious, and Himeko couldn't help but share in the fit of giggles.

Eventually, the fit died down, and both women leaned back in their chairs, satiated.

"I can't believe you've been to more places than even I have," Juri said softly. "Himeko, why are you always traveling? What are you looking for in all these places?"

Unexpectedly, as Himeko twirled her empty wine glass, her eyes grew soft, and sad. She looked down at the still closed photo album on the table, and tapped her fingers idly against the cover.

Feeling the shift in the mood, Juri leaned forward. "Himeko?"

The photographer didn't answer right away, simply continuing to tap her fingers on the album. "Blue-green eyes." She said, softly.

Juri raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

But Himeko didn't repeat herself. Instead, she continued to look pensively at the album, as though Juri wasn't even in the room. She traced her fingers over several worn grooves in the book's cover.

"... Himeko?" Juri finally asked, softly.

The photographer sighed, and opened the album. Turning it around, she pushed it in front of Juri.

Juri stared at the photos. They were old, at least a decade old, and not taken with a professional camera. Giving Himeko a curious look, she flipped through the pages, and could see picture after picture of... nothing. They were pictures of various parts of a school, of a garden, and some of them even had Himeko herself in them, though mostly they did not. The camera must have been broken, because the pictures always seemed to be focused on something that wasn't quite there.

"Himeko, what's this?' Juri asked softly, suddenly getting the feeling that the photographer was sharing something intensely private with her.

Himeko continued to be silent, looking immeasurably sad as she gazed down at the pictures. "Blue-green eyes," she finally repeated softly, though she avoided looking at the set that could be described as such in the room.

Juri swallowed, suddenly feeling her heart beat a little faster. "Himeko?"

The lilac eyed woman remained silent for a while longer. When she finally spoke, there was obvious longing in her voice. "I'm sorry about lying to you, Juri-chan. About being busy tonight." Himeko finally said. "I just... I normally spend my birthdays at home, by myself."

Juri considered this. "Is that by choice, or necessity?" She asked softly.

Himeko paused. "Some years by necessity," she finally admitted. "Some years by choice. But this year..." Himeko trailed off.

The silence in the room was not uncomfortable, so Juri waited for Himeko to speak. It took her a while, and Juri wondered if the other woman was going to say anything at all, but then Himeko finally blurted, "Juri-chan, why are you so interested in me? I'm not... I'm not beautiful or smart or interesting. You could have any woman in the world. So why… why me?"

Juri blinked. "You are a fool," she said, quite quickly, and quite honestly.

Himeko frowned, and looked away.

Cursing her unusually clumsy tongue, Juri put her glass down, and gently took Himeko's hands after removing the other woman's glass from them.

Juri's voice was soft, but clear. And honest. "You are a fool, to think that you are neither beautiful nor smart nor interesting. Himeko, you are all of the above, in spades. Maybe not stunning, but lovely, certainly. Maybe not shrewd, but sensible, yes, of course. Maybe not suave, but charming, most definitely. And I cannot be the only one who has told you this."

Himeko bit her lip, and looked away.

Juri frowned. "You're kidding me. No one has told you this before?"

"... because I've never let myself_ be _told that before," Himeko finally admitted, a hint of desperation in her voice. "I've... I've never gone out on a date before. I've... I've just... been waiting. So long."

The frown on Juri's face deepened. "Who for?"

"... someone special. Just for me." Himeko closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, and looked Juri in the eyes, Juri could see the loneliness, the heartache. Almost a decade, Himeko had spent, trotting around the world. Searching. Hoping. Alone. "I don't know." Himeko said softly, "But I always thought they'd have blue green eyes. Very much like yours."

Juri's heart stirred. "How do you know it's not me?" She asked.

Himeko seemed surprised. "What?"

Juri's grip on the other woman's hand tightened. "How could you know, when you've met this person? This, 'someone special, just for you'?" Juri swallowed. Her heart was pounding so much. "You've never gone on a date before, never even let yourself go on one. So how could you know who it is you're looking for, what you like? How can you be sure you haven't already met them?"

Himeko's brow furrowed. "I-"

"Her eyes were purple too."

"What?" Himeko's eyes widened. "Juri-cha-"

"I waited _years_." Juri continued. "I waited and I pined and I broke my heart and I never looked at anyone else, and I didn't even know a damn thing about who she really was." Subconsciously, her hold on Himeko's hand got tighter and tighter. Juri didn't realize how hard she was squeezing Himeko's hand until a look of pain came onto the other woman's features. Hastily, she unhanded the other woman. "Sorry." She muttered.

"It's... okay," Himeko assured softly.

They were silent for a long time.

Suddenly, Juri got up, surprising Himeko with the action. Putting her hands on the coffee table, she pushed it away from the both of them roughly, causing the photo album, and both glasses to fall to the ground. The book simply clattered, while one of the glasses broke where the stem met the head. Juri didn't care.

Kneeling down in front of the tawny haired woman where the table once had been, Juri's blue-green eyes brimmed as they fully captured Himeko's amethyst own.

"Don't waste your life." Juri pleaded. There was desperation in her voice. It sounded so foreign to Juri's ears, and it must have sounded strange to Himeko as well. Juri was not one used to begging.

"Take it from someone who's been there, who spent _years_ waiting for someone else to come around. It's just not worth wasting your youth and happiness waiting for a miracle. They may happen, but you still have to reach out to grab one for yourself, and you, you're not even reaching. Please, Himeko, you don't have to give me a chance, but you have to give yourself one. If you don't, one day, you'll wake up, look at yourself in the mirror, and not recognize the bitter old woman looking back at you. The regret will change you, twist you into someone else, kill who you were meant to be. And I... I couldn't bear knowing that I could see that coming, and still let that happen to you."

They continued to stare at each other, longing, so evident in both their eyes.

Himeko looked away.

And Juri felt her heart sink.

* * *

_*TWO YEARS AGO*_

The soft tapping sound of stiletto heels on hardwood prompted Juri to look up, and a vision of absolute beauty captured her rapt attention.

Himeko stood shyly at the top of the stairs of Juri's two story apartment, one hand steadying herself on the banister, the other one holding a crystal clutch, and looked down at Juri, blushing slightly. Her recently cut, now shoulder length tawny colored hair had been expertly styled, and curled around one side of her face, held into place by the diamond encrusted hair piece Juri had given her earlier in the evening. Her makeup was so impeccable, it was as though she was wearing none at all, leaving her skin almost luminescent under the chandelier's light.

She wore a wine red, silk spaghetti strapped dress with a plunging neckline that hugged her petite frame in all the right places. It reached to about her ankles, allowing the sparkling ruby red stilettos to peek out from the hem. Completing the image of sophistication and class were drop style diamond earrings at her ears, along with one elegant platinum bracelet around her left wrist, and matching white ring around her right middle finger.

Juri's breath caught in her throat.

"You look ravishing," she breathed, when Himeko carefully made her way down the stairs successfully, a feat in and of itself, even for women gifted in balance, given the height of the heels, let alone the notoriously clumsy photographer. Standing just before Juri, the normally smaller woman was almost the same height. Juri supposed, she wouldn't even have to tilt her head down very much, to capture the other woman's lips.

Though that would be far too presumptuous of her.

It was, after all, their first real date.

"Thank you," Himeko said softly, obviously pleased but also obviously embarrassed. "You... you spent way too much money on me, Juri-chan," a small, admonishing smile crept onto her face. "I'm wearing more tonight than I made the last two years combined!"

"Then obviously Tomoyo isn't paying you enough," Juri teased. She let her eyes wander slowly down Himeko's body, relishing in the way Himeko's skin seemed to redden just a little bit from the attention, before bringing her eyes back up to meet Himeko's own.

Juri knew that she herself looked exceptional as well. She was decked out in a midnight black power suit Tomoyo had tailored specifically for her, the designer's expert eye knowing exactly where to dart and where to cut to accentuate Juri's naturally lean, yet fully feminine figure, full of mystique. Her hair had been perfectly curled into her trademark ringlets, and though she didn't have quite as much visible jewellery as her date tonight (their first), for Kaoru Miki's orchestral concert (incidentally, his first as well, with the Tokyo philharmonic), what she did wear had been made specifically for her by Sebastian Dior himself and would be the envy of every collector in the hall.

Juri didn't have any doubt that every eye in the place would be able to pick her out... but even she couldn't hold a flame to the Venus that was Kurusugawa Himeko tonight.

There really was only one item out of place.

Around Himeko's neck, a simple, pink seashell hung from a necklace made of yellowing metal.

But Juri could fix that.

Taking the jewellery box out of her pocket, Juri smiled when Himeko's eyes crinkled questioningly. Opening the box, she brought out an elegant, delicate necklace made of a stylized weave of platinum links. She presented the item to Himeko, and asked, softly, "... may I?"

Himeko's eyes grew troubled, as Juri knew they would. Instinctively, the tawny haired woman's hand reached for the simple pink seashell around her neck and held onto it protectively.

"I'm not going to take it from you," Juri explained softly. "But I thought your pendant would look better on this necklace."

Despite the explanation, Himeko continued to look troubled. It wasn't until Juri frowned a little, did the photographer finally nod, ever so slightly, and turned around.

Carefully, Juri worked at the old, worn clasp holding the necklace around Himeko's neck, and slipped the careworn accessory from the other woman's body. As soon as the item left her skin, Juri could detect a slight tremor go through the other woman.

Juri couldn't help but frown. Quickly slipping the seashell pendant off of the old necklace, she worked it onto its fancy replacement, and slipped that as quickly and as carefully as she could back around Himeko's neck. The other woman visibly calmed when the pendant was finally back against her skin.

"Turn around. Let me see?"

Complying with the request, Himeko turned around again, and Juri was pleased to see the shy but happy smile on her face as she absently played with her new necklace.

The flame haired woman nodded. Putting the old necklace in the jewellery box, she offered the fancy box (the box alone was worth many times more than the necklace it contained) back to Himeko.

The tawny haired woman stared at the box for a moment, her eyes growing sad. "Juri-chan..." she said softly. "... would you mind keeping that for me? For now?"

Juri raised an eyebrow. "I can do that." She moved to slip the box back in her pocket.

"Actually," Himeko interrupted, her eyes still on the box. "Not just for now, but until... until you feel like you have to give it back to me."

Juri's eyes widened, just a little bit. Then the smile on her face grew a little shy too. "I might not ever give it back to you."

Himeko returned Juri's shy smile. "... that's... okay with me too."

Juri felt her heart soar. The smile on her face grew wider, and she finally put the box back in her pocket. She offered her other hand to the beautiful woman. "Shall we go?"

Himeko looked at Juri's hand for a few moments, seeming, somehow, lost.

And then, Juri thought she could see determination sparkle in those marvellous lilac depths...

... when Himeko finally reached out, and took her hand.

* * *

_*ONE YEAR AGO*_

Himeko trembled. Curling up into a tiny ball, facing away from Juri, she closed her eyes and desperately tried to will the tears gathering at the corner of her eyes from falling.

"... Himeko?" Juri asked softly, almost timidly, her naked body warm against Himeko's equally bare back. Hesitantly, the flame haired woman kissed Himeko's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Himeko couldn't respond. She wasn't sure if she was.

"... did I hurt you?" Juri asked softly. It was the obvious worry in the other woman's voice that finally prompted Himeko to take a long, deep, shuttering breath and rub the tears from her eyes. She rolled over, curling up under her patient, new, finally-a-lover's chin, hugging her tightly.

"No, you didn't hurt me. It didn't hurt at all." Himeko replied softly, absently playing with a lock of Juri's fine, orange red hair.

She just couldn't help thinking that it should have.

* * *

_*THAT MORNING, (AT THE END OF SUMMER HOLIDAYS)*_

At a busy intersection in the middle of downtown Fuuka, Himeko stood at a crosswalk. The summer heat was almost unbearably hot, so she had worn a short, white pleated tennis skirt, as well as a sleeveless blue top. Juri had meetings at the school, so Himeko decided to go do some shopping by herself. Her girlfriend had just sent her a text to meet at a café they frequented. As usual, Himeko was running a little behind. It was a completely average day, with nothing out of the ordinary. She stood at the crosswalk, with many others, waiting for the light to switch.

It was a day just like any other.

Until they met.

It was the pink seashell pendant she noticed first.

Himeko's eyes went wide as she stared at the piece of jewellery, recognizing it instantly.

The pink seashell pendant – _her_ pink seashell pendant – was suspended by a necklace of beautiful, fine silver links, draped across a long, beautiful neck, framed by perfect, alabaster white skin.

Openly staring, mouth slightly agape, Himeko was afraid to let her eyes leave the ornament for fear it would disappear on her, but hope, and faith, and courage finally allowed her to slowly lift her gaze upwards, to see a perfect chin, beautiful pink lips, sharp, delicate cheekbones and nose, and maddeningly familiar –

**WRONG.**

Himeko almost jumped out of her skin, confused and disoriented, when her eyes finally met the eyes of the striking, blue-black haired girl who was walking towards her, who had stopped in her tracks, an expression of shock and surprise and painfully obvious _recognition _clear on her beautiful, young, face.

But her eyes were wrong. Completely, and utterly and terrifyingly _wrong_.

Her left eye was a sharp, menacing, bright golden yellow that seemed almost to glow in the sunlight, the pupil elongated, almost reptilian. Her right eye, also yellow, was dull, lifeless, and seemed, somehow, to sport a jagged, diagonal crack through the iris.

The most ancient of instincts – the one responsible for humanity's survival across the ages – started going crazy in the back of Himeko's mind, chilling her instantly against the summer heat, causing even the fine hairs on her arms and the back of her neck to rise. Revulsion and terror bubbled up in the pit of Himeko's stomach.

Those eyes were unnatural, somehow dead, and yet filled with wrath at the same time.

They were eyes that meant to do harm.

Instinctively, Himeko took a step back.

Everything about those eyes, particularly the menacing, bright yellow left one, was telling her instincts to run, to flee, to escape while she could, and never look back.

And yet, she found herself rooted to the spot, for though the feelings she got from those eyes were of pure malicious intent, the expression on the girl's face, the furrow in her brow, the slightly agape mouth – the rest of the girl's body language was screaming nothing but recognition, and vulnerability.

_Please! _The girl's body language's seemed to say, in desperation, _please! Don't go! Please!_

So Himeko remained stuck, frozen in place, her heart and her head at such instinctive conflict with each other, that the rest of her could not even move.

Suddenly, a car honked.

And that broke the spell.

Almost having a heart attack, Himeko jumped in surprise and instinctively looked at the source of the noise. The driver in the sedan gave her a rude gesture, and honked again.

Blinking confusedly, her heart still racing at the sudden and loud noises, Himeko hesitantly turned her attention back to the girl, and stared, flabbergasted, when she realized that the pink seashell pendant that had caught her attention in the first place... wasn't even there at all.

Himeko felt her heart sink into her stomach, her mind go completely blank. She stared at the other girl's neck, willing the seashell pendant she could have sworn was there but a moment ago to return.

But it did not.

It was never there in the first place.

But the girl still was. The beautiful girl – she looked to be in her late teens or maybe early twenties – with frightening yellow eyes and long blue-black hair was still standing there, still staring back at her, that same look of recognition clear as day on her face, but now it was tinged with anxiety, and fear.

And Himeko was suddenly scared too. Absolutely terrified.

Because she just couldn't shake the feeling that she _knew_ the girl somehow.

"Lady, MOVE IT!" Screamed one of the drivers as he slammed his palm into his horn and let the loud, rude noise blare.

Wincing at the noise, Himeko gave a quick, apologetic bow and hurried towards the other girl.

She ran right passed her.

Making her way to the other street corner safely, Himeko's heart threatened to stop beating as she ran passed the girl, so close by to her, she could almost feel the heat from her shoulder against hers as they moved silently passed one another.

Himeko stopped at the sidewalk, breathing hard, and not understanding why.

She turned around.

The girl was still standing in the middle of the street, facing away from her. She hadn't moved.

Himeko's heart started to ache as she stared at the back of the girl's head. Now that those fearsome, fearsome eyes were turned away from her, she could not help but feel her heart _yearn_ at the familiarity that was the girl's silhouette, leaving her speechless, and dumbstruck.

_Turn around,_ Himeko thought desperately.

Despite the fearsomeness of the girl's eyes, she wanted to see the girl's face again. She wanted to make for damn sure that the seashell pendant _really_ wasn't there…

... and then, Himeko's phone started to buzz in her pocket, causing her to jump in surprise. Pulling the item out of her pocket, she could see the message Juri had sent her.

_Where are you?_

She stared at the innocuous message for what felt like an eternity. For some reason, she could not quite seem to comprehend those words. Why did they suddenly seem so complicated? Why did her heart suddenly feel like it was twisting into knots?

The implication didn't seem to make it into Himeko's head for a long time, until finally, a voice seemed to whisper in her ear: _… Juri-chan is waiting for you… _

Only then, did Himeko blink, and suddenly realize that she was keeping her girlfriend waiting. She shook her head, trying to clear it of sudden cobwebs.

Swallowing, she put the phone back in her pocket, and willed her shaking legs to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.

So intent was she on telling herself to just keep walking that she didn't notice the tall, handsome, dark-skinned man in the fine white suit with light lavender hair leaning against a ledge, a little ways away from the intersection, as she walked quickly passed him too.

He smiled.

* * *

Standing by herself in the middle of the empty intersection, frozen to the spot, Chikane began to shake. She closed her eyes and desperately tried to keep herself together.

_C-Curious, _Chikane thought, trying her best to remain detached,_ I always thought the collapse of the world would be... noisier..._

Because certainly, to her, that was indeed what had just happened.

All her life, all 15 years of it, every day, she had dreamed of the moment, of meeting Himeko again, and while she had thought that 15 years of running every single possible scenario through her mind could have prepared her for the best, and the worst, having one of the worst cases _actually_ come to pass...

Chikane realized that it was stupid of her to think she could possibly have readied herself for that.

Silent tears spilled from the corner of her eyes.

_Himeko._

A voice she did not want to hear laughed loudly and maniacally in her head.

_Do not be so unhappy, Orochi! The collapse of the world has not passed you by, for you can most definitely be assured that it__** will**__ be noisy when it does!_

Chikane's yellow eyes snapped open as she heard the taunt of the Obsidian Lord from somewhere inside her mind. _Shut up. _Chikane commanded._ I am not Orochi._

The Obsidian Lord laughed and laughed and laughed._ This you keep insisting, Lunar Miko! But you are wrong! The Solar Miko did not even recognize you! She walked right past you like any other stranger on the street! But, worry not! There is a way that you can still be with your beloved! You know this! Destroy the Hime! Raise the pillars! Summon the Hime Star and your wishes will-_

Chikane grit her teeth. "Shut up." She whispered softly. She balled her hands into fists. With supreme effort, she was able to shut the words of the Obsidian Lord from her mind, though, unfortunately, as that sound faded, it was replaced several times over by the much louder volume of several angry and honking drivers.

Her completely frayed composure finally snapped.

Lips twisting from a mere grimace into an outright growl, she whipped her head up to glare balefully at the cars, yellow eyes gleaming menacingly. "Shut up!" She snarled savagely.

The car directly in front of her was suddenly and inexplicably pushed back, smashing into the car behind it with a force so great that the second vehicle was driven into the one behind it as well. People started screaming, drowned out by the screeching of metal against metal and the shattering of glass.

Before anyone could know what happened, there was a four car pileup in the middle of downtown Fuuka.

The teenaged girl at the center of it all stared at the destruction, stunned.

She quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, and walked away before anyone could notice her shaky, trembling departure.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Himeko was definitely looking for a very particular character archetype as she travelled around the world. Altena & Mireille are from _Noir_. Layla Hamilton is from _Kaleido Star_. Sachiko is from _Maria-sama ga Miteru_. Hanazono Shizuma is from _Strawberry Panic_. Who am I missing? =P

Juri always struck me as a woman who preferred pants, which is a bit of a pity to me. I think she's also the only major female character in Utena to not wear the rose-bride dress (hmm... did Nanami ever wear one?). I remember seeing her show up to Nanami's party wearing that god awful white top, purple pant getup covered in gaudy golden jewellery and could not understand at all why everyone thought she was the height of sophistication. I could have sworn she got dressed in the dark.

Just as a heads up, a pretty big storm that I'd been expecting at work has finally hit, so the next two weeks are going to be pretty horrifying for me. It might take a while for the next chapter to come up, as I'm still making tweeks to it. I will be shooting for the end of February 2013. Thank you for your patience!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Yes, THAT Somethingsomething Dior

[JURI and HIMEKO are decked out in their finest, ready to go to MIKI's concert.]

JURI: Wow, Himeko, you are looking FINE!

HIMEKO: Oh, thank you, Juri-chan. There's like, a quarter million dollars of bling on me right now.

JURI: Hmm, there's just one thing missing. Here! [Hands HIMEKO a massive, fancy jewellery box that says somethingsomething DIOR on it]

HIMEKO: [Gasps!] Omigosh, is that what I think it is? [Excitedly opens the box.]

[Inside is a giant, opulent, bulbous cowbell. In the distance, NANAMOO and HARUKOW can be heard mooing as streams of tears wobble down from their eyes.]

HIMEKO: ...

JURI: ...

HIMEKO: ... this is part of the running joke, isn't it?

JURI: ... I have no idea what the author's deal with cows is, I really don't.

* * *

OMAKE II: Mo Ikkai Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episode

[MAI's voice can be heard doing the voice over top of a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

MAI: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, I, um... [she can't quite finish her voice over, as she keeps looking over to CHIKANE, sobbing wildly in the corner]... um... oh, dear. [Runs over to CHIKANE and gives her a big hug]. There, there, Chikane-chan! It's okay, it's alright, everything's going to be okay...

CHIKANE: Buwaaaaaaaa! My life is over! What else is there to live for?! [Sobs into MAI's ample bosom]

MAI: No, really, I think it will be okay. I think the next chapter is supposed to have a fancy party or something! There, how about that? You like parties, don't you? Don't you?

CHIKANE: [Wails some more] That got pushed back! The stupid author realized she really needed to spend a bit of time explaining what happened at the start of summer break, so the Gala's not gonna happen until Chapter 10 or maybe even Chapter 11 at this point!

MAI: [Sweatdrops] Oh, well, it's a fancy party, isn't it? I think the stage ninjas and plot bunnies are going to take a while to set it up, so why don't we go see how they're doing? Who knows, maybe the food's there already? Oh! There might be ice cream!

CHIKANE: ... [Hestitantly] ... ice cream? [rubs her eyes] I... can haz ice cream?

MAI: [Smiles kindly] I'm sure you can! Okay! Let's go! Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 9 – 'At the Gala…' I mean, right, that got pushed back, didn't it? What's the new title again? [Flips through her script]. Oh, right, Chapter 9 – The New Orochi. [Sweatdrops]

CHIKANE: [Starts bawling again] That doesn't sound like good times at all!


	10. Chp 9 - The New Orochi

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 9 (The New Orochi)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

February 3, 2013 – February 9, 2013

Word Count: 8,900

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

It was a terrible thing to hope for, Utena knew, but still, she couldn't help but wish that the train coming to take her daughter away would derail, or something.

She was sitting on a bench at the train station with her daughter. In direct contrast to when they had done this at the start of Chikane's first semester in high school, five months ago, this time, the mother and daughter pair were silent, and the atmosphere about them was fraught with tension.

Looking out of the corner of her eye at her daughter, Utena could see that Chikane was sitting with her back straight, and her head held level. Her eyes were closed. Wearing a simple, white, one piece summer dress and a yellow headband in her hair, she actually looked a lot more reputable than her mother currently did, slouched down low on the bench in a track jacket with her hands in her pockets.

Utena bit her lip. She had to try one more time. "You really don't have to go back, baby girl," she said tersely. "I could enroll you in my school just like that. You wouldn't miss any time at all and-"

"Okaa-sama," her daughter interrupted her gently without turning her head to regard her, or even opening her eyes for that matter. "We've gone through this many times already. I want to go back to Fuuka."

"But I don't!" Utena all but spat, jumping to her feet in agitation and looking down at her daughter with a cross expression on her face. "Don't I have any say in this matter?"

Chikane finally opened her eyes, and slowly trained her now eerie, almost hetero-chromatic eyes on her mother. Seeing those mismatched yellow depths, one burning yellow, the other a dull gold with a distorted black crack through it, Utena had to bite back the instinctive bile rising in the back of her throat.

It was those eyes, of course, that had Utena so on edge, as they had for the last four and a half weeks now, after she had received the worst phone call of her life, and rushed to Fuuka General Hospital to find her daughter unconscious after a suspicious accident.

Those eyes weren't right. They weren't even _human_. For the life of her, Utena could not recall where she had seen those eyes before, but every time she looked at them, she had to fight down the urge to...

Utena looked away, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with guilt.

To destroy them. To rip them out of her daughter's skull.

_God, what the hell's the matter with me?! _Utena thought desperately to herself, clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes tightly shut._ How can I even think about... about doing that to my own baby?!_

She didn't want to remember the absolute, almost out-of-body shock she had felt when she had first seen those eyes. She had actually raised her hand, pointed her fingers at her daughter's face, and pulled her arm back to strike, until her daughter's voice had reached her ears hesitantly, and said, "... okaa-sama?"

It was only then that Utena had snapped out of it.

_... maybe Chikane really is safer at Fuuka... away for me... _

Utena felt her daughter place a cautious hand on her shoulder, and then felt those arms reach around to wrap her in a hug. Utena closed her eyes. At least, when she wasn't looking her daughter in the face, the girl still felt the same in her arms.

"I promise I'll call more often. Every day, Okaa-sama," Chikane said.

Utena snorted. "I've heard that line before."

And then she could hear the smile in her daughter's voice. "I promise this time."

And Utena could only sigh. "You'd better."

It was then that the train pulled into the station, and all the other passengers got on. Chikane gave her mother one last squeeze, and then headed onto the train. She didn't look back when the doors closed.

The train pulled out of the station. The disembarked passengers all hurried passed her, none of them paying her any mind or attention, until she was alone on the platform.

Utena clenched her fists again, the feeling of powerlessness and impotence crawling along her skin, seeping into her muscles, causing them to itch with fury. She punched a nearby pillar, bruising her knuckles, but not really feeling the impact.

"... I know you're there." She said softly under her breath. "I know you're up to something. If you hurt her, Akio, I swear to god, I will hunt you down, and I will _end_ you."

There was no response to Utena's threat in the station.

But that did not necessarily mean that it was not heard.

* * *

Finding a seat on a secluded car of the train, Chikane kept her eyes closed as much as she could to avoid giving the other passengers an unnecessary scare.

_Why do you still bother!? _The taunting voice of the Obsidian Lord in the back of her mind demanded._ Let them see who you are! Let them know fear! Let them run!_

Chikane frowned. _Shut up! _

Weeks, she had had to put up with this second voice in the back of her mind now. _Weeks._

He was driving her mad, almost as mad as he was, having been driven to insanity by the constant, excruciating pain from the damage he had sustained in his last battle against the Hime, evidence of his resounding defeat visible to all who beheld him in the form of a large crack through the gemstone that contained him, now embedded into Chikane's right eye.

The Obsidian Lord was but a shadow of his former self, maniacal, raving, and decidedly unhinged.

He made Orochi, the former representation of despair seem almost _rational_.

Some days, it was not so bad, and Chikane barely even knew the Obsidian Lord was there. But other days, he was so loud in her mind, she couldn't even make out his words; it was simply just noise and it assaulted all of her senses to the point where it was all she could do to keep screaming herself.

Chikane wondered how much longer her sanity would last against this bombardment, how much more of this she could take before she just succumbed to the ranting of the Obsidian Lord and '_destroyed the hime_', whoever they were.

Chikane took a deep breath. At least, right now, he was mercifully silent, and remained that way for the rest of the train ride.

Hours passed.

As Chikane arrived in downtown Fuuka, she couldn't help but feel hope again in her heart. Stuck in virtual house arrest by her mother for almost all of summer vacation, if she hadn't gone crazy yet from the second voice in her head, she would have gone crazy from the boredom, though she could understand her mother's concern.

At least here, with school starting up again, she could try to put her life back together again.

She refused to believe it was all over.

It was not, after all.

What had happened that fateful night in July had... happened. There was no changing that.

But she was still here.

And Himeko was still here.

So things would work out. Somehow.

Hope dared to flutter in her heart, as Chikane stood at the busy intersection, waiting for the lights to turn green.

She'll be fine. They'll be fine. Chikane tried to reassure herself.

They'd made it through so much worse, after all.

And then Chikane saw Himeko, just like that, out of the blue, standing at the street corner opposite her in downtown Fuuka.

And Chikane's world came crashing down around her.

* * *

Natsuki looked at her watch irritably. "Dammit, she should be here by now," she frowned, tapping her pencil against her notebook, spread open on the coffee table.

It had never been her intention to leave her summer vacation homework until the end of the break. She had planned on being a better student, on doing better in school, on just enjoying a normal, relaxing life with Shizuru, and Mai, and all the rest.

That had been at the start of summer vacation, however.

Before Chikane had her accident.

Before the tranquility and happiness of a normal life was snatched from Natsuki once more.

"Maybe her train was a little late," Shizuru suggested, sitting on Natsuki's bed, flipping the pages of the magazine without being able to actually pay them any attention at all.

It was the end of August, and classes would resume in only a couple more short days. Neither girls had seen their friend for the last five weeks, and given the inauspicious circumstances from which they had parted at the beginning of summer, both were eager to make sure their friend was alright.

At least it wasn't like they hadn't had any communication with her at all, the last few weeks; Natsuki had received a couple of texts over summer from Chikane. _'Sorry to make you all worry. I'm fine now. I'll be back when the second semester begins. Is Chu Chu with Mikoto?'_

When Chikane had left Suzushiro Haruka's villa, they hadn't been altogether worried, as the young student council president was a smart girl, and had a decent head on her shoulders. But by midnight, almost everyone who was still left at Haruka's party had borrowed a flash light to go looking for her.

In the end, it was Mikoto who found Chu Chu, wailing piteously on the side of a road, beside herself with fright. After a few minutes of calming the animal down, the girl had then managed to get the monkey to lead her down to the area where beach became rocky cliff side, and the ocean crashed directly onto craggy rocks. They found her, unconscious against the rocks, half submerged in water, various cuts and bruises decorating her skin from where she must have fallen down.

The ambulance had been called, and Chikane had been rushed to the hospital. Her mother was called first thing in the morning, and Tenjou Utena had then rushed over to Fuuka on the first available train.

Natsuki couldn't help but feel the guilt eat at her heart when she had finally met the woman her roommate spoke so fondly and often about. Tenjou Utena looked young – maybe even younger than Natsuki herself – but her eyes were so drained with dread that no one had any problem believing the woman was old enough to have a teenaged daughter.

_"You must be Chikane's roommate, Natsuki-chan," Utena tried to give Natsuki a kind smile, and that expression had only dug the knife of guilt a little deeper into the biker's chest. "Thank you for looking after my daughter all this time..."_

It was not the nicest thing Utena could have said, given the circumstances, and Natsuki felt like she'd been slapped, though the pink haired woman had not meant to nasty.

Shortly thereafter, Utena said she wanted her daughter returned home. Chikane, still not awake, though there did not seem to be anything wrong with her that the doctors could tell, had then been sent by ambulance back to Tokyo with her mother, where she'd stayed for the rest of summer vacation.

With everyone's attention on the search for the student council president that night, no one had noticed the tiny red light of the Hime Star reappearing in the sky, close to the moon.

It hadn't been until the following morning, after Chikane's departure, that Natuski had realized what else had changed.

_"Natsuki, stop this," Shizuru pleaded softly, sitting beside the distraught younger girl on her bed. Natsuki was holding her head in her hands, guilt so heavy in her heart it wanted to fall out of her chest. "No one knows why Chikane-san went where she did."_

_"There's a reason why we all get roommates," Natsuki said bitterly. "So the older students can keep the younger ones out of trouble. What the hell was I thinking, letting her wander off like that?"_

_"You weren't the only one who did," Shizuru said quietly. "In fact, you wanted to go after her. It was I who held you back..." The guilt was obvious in the tawny haired girl's voice too._

_"Shizuru..." Realizing that it wasn't just her feeling the stabs of remorse for actions not known better, Natsuki turned to look at her girlfriend. The misery was clear on the older girl, and only caused Natsuki's own heart to ache even more. _

_She wanted to do something for her._

_She wanted to comfort her. _

_She wanted comfort herself._

_One thing led to another and before Natsuki could piece together the actions that had led up to this point, she was breaking off a hungry kiss with Shizuru, and urgently pulling at the bottom of her girlfriend's shirt. The tawny haired girl was a little startled – neither of them had really been prepared for this – but her eyes were heavy with desire._

_Ignoring the aching, pounding sensation of her heart in her chest, and the 'what-are-you-doing?!' sirens of alarm in the back of her mind, Natsuki pulled the shirt up and overtop of Shizuru's head._

_Then she froze. _

_They'd not gone this far before._

_Shizuru frowned. "Natsuki?" She asked, hesitantly. _

_But it was not Shizuru's body that had entranced Natsuki so. _

_It was the red mark of the Hime Star on Shizuru's flat abdomen that dropped Natsuki's heart out of her chest through her own stomach._

The weeks that followed had been frustrating, terrifying, and filled with… nothing. Nothing but terrible, terrible suspense for what had happened, and what was still to come.

Natsuki had freaked out, and she wasn't the only one. Between the twelve of them, they had almost torn Fumi to shreds, demanding to see Mashiro, and when the school Director had proved to be as completely in the dark as the rest of them, they had spent the rest of summer scouring the island, investigating and re-investigating anything and everything that could give them a clue as to what the hell was going on.

It had been an entirely unfruitful and frustrating summer.

Natsuki had already spent far too many previous summers doing very similar things, and the only reason why she'd even survived this one with her sanity and emotional stability largely intact was that at least this time, she hadn't had to suffer through it all alone.

With Shizuru at her side the entire time, the frustrations had been a little less infuriating, the toiling a little less hard. Natsuki didn't want to think about how badly she would have regressed if her girlfriend had not been there.

The First District was not involved, as far as they could tell. Neither was Searrs.

It took them a while, but eventually, they'd found a way to access the remains of the Obsidian Palace under the school, and had found nothing but destroyed junk.

There were no orphans.

There were no Childs.

There were no annoying albino boys to make light of their tragic destinies.

That didn't stop the more sensible of the Hime Mark bearers from leaving town.

Higurashi Akane fled almost immediately, with Kurauchi Kazuya. She let Mai know they were leaving the island, and then off they went. Natsuki couldn't blame the girl's haste at all; Akane had suffered so much during the last festival.

Sister Yukariko was already off the island, having retired to the country side with her husband in anticipation of the birth of their baby boy. Director Himeno Fumi had tried to get in touch with her, but to no avail.

No one knew the whereabouts of Miyu Greer or Alyssa Sears; they'd left Japan at the start of spring semester.

The conversation with Munkata Shiho had been awkward, to say the least. Since her mark was on the top of her head, the middle schooler still hadn't noticed it. She had been busy avoiding her former onii-san and his girlfriend and the rest of them like the plague for the last several months, after Tate had manned up and finally spelled out his choice to her. Mai had tried to approach her several times and had been unsuccessful. It was finally Natsuki who had been able to do so, and the middle school student had been stunned. Shiho then got her family to send her off to relatives on the far side of Japan.

That left the remaining nine Hime tense as piano wire, and Natsuki could still remember the apprehension from when they'd all gathered in Director Himeno Fumi's office to try to figure out what had happened.

_"But I just don't get it!" Midori cried, pulling her hair in frustration. "This doesn't make any sense at all! Why is this all happening again? I thought we ended the cycle! Mai!" The teacher looked over at the redhead. Suddenly, everyone did. "Didn't you end this? I thought you wished for the end of the Obsidian Lord! I thought you wished to break the cycle!"_

_Mai was taken aback, completely surprised by what the teacher said to her. Swallowing, she looked at the other eight pairs of eyes trained on her. "Midori-chan, that's not what I wished for at all," she finally admitted softly._

_Midori was aghast. They all were. "What? What did you wish for then?"_

_The winner of the last Hime Star Festival fell into silence once more. Finally, she turned her purple eyes onto the lone pair of guileless eyes in the room, amber eyes trained on her with only simple curiosity. _

_"I wished that Mikoto didn't have to die." Mai said softly._

_The revelation was met with stunned silence._

_And then, Nao asked, "... ever?"_

_No one was able to respond to her question for a while. _

_No one could look at Mikoto in the face either, and the young girl simply continued to blink in confusion, asking, "What? What's going on?"_

_Finally, Fumi sighed, and said, "for now, let us not attempt to find out."_

Natsuki sighed and put her pencil down. She massaged her temples, her heavy thoughts giving her a dull head ache. "Let's hope it's just the train being late," she mumbled belatedly in response to Shizuru's suggestion.

Seeing her in such a foul mood, Shizuru got off the bed and came down to kneel behind Natsuki at the coffee table, gently pulling the younger girl's hands away from her forehead, and replacing them with her own fingers.

Shizuru was a lot better at massages than Natsuki was, and the darker haired girl sighed in relief as she could feel the tension in her head slowly bleed out mercifully under Shizuru's strong movements. Wrapped up in her girlfriend's carefully ministrations, Natsuki closed her eyes and didn't quite hear it when the front door clicked open quietly.

Then came that familiar husky voice, speaking in super dry tones, and relief flowed through Natsuki's veins as though it was blood.

"Oh my. Have you two turned this place into a love nest in my absence?"

Eyes snapping open, a megawatt smile on her face, Natsuki turned and cried out, hearing Shizuru say at the same time, "Chikan-!"

And then both girls cut off their happy explanation with a gasp as they stared up at their friend.

Instead of the expected blue-green, completely alien, malicious yellow eyes stared down at them, completely at odds with the fond smile on the familiar face. One yellow eye seemed to be glowing, the other one dead and lifeless, with what looked like a large black vein stretching across it.

That fond smile lost a little bit of its shine. "Chikan-ne." Said the girl standing at the door in somewhat perturbed tones. "Please don't forget the 'ne'. I live here too after all."

Natsuki blinked. Caught completely by surprise by the uncharacteristic (and horrible) pun, as well as the decidedly unnatural eyes, it took a while for Natsuki's brain to catch up to her silently gaping mouth.

Finally, Natsuki swallowed, and tried again. "C-Chikane?" She said, doubt clear in her voice. "Is that you?"

The girl standing at the door frowned, the expression only serving to make her eyes that much scarier, until she sighed, and closed them, even as she came fully into the room and shut the door behind her so that she could lean back against it. "Yes, it's me." She said, in the same soft, gentle tones that Natsuki remembered so well.

"What happened to your e-" Natsuki was cut off.

"Eyes?" Chikane finished flatly, opening the items in question to look at her friends as though she had answered this question dozens of times before (she had).

Natsuki could only nod, a little meekly, the tone in Chikane's voice somewhat harsh.

"I don't know." Chikane finally said. "When I woke up, they were like this."

The tone in her voice held a little bit of a dangerous edge to it, and Natsuki could tell that her roommate, so mature and evenly tempered as to be compared to angels by many of her peers, was highly irritated.

Natsuki wasn't sure what to say. There were a billion questions running through her mind. "... does it hurt?" She finally settled for.

It took the student council president a while to answer. Eventually, she confessed softly, "... it's not so bad right now."

The room fell into silence.

It wasn't until Shizuru got up from behind Natsuki, and stepped forward, did the awkward silence finally end. Natsuki wondered what was on her girlfriend's mind when Shizuru walked up to Chikane purposefully and then lifted her hands upwards to touch her face.

Chikane's eyes narrowed a fraction in suspicion, those almost glowing orbs swinging and focusing on Shizuru's fingers dangerously. It was such a chilling expression that ripples were sent down Natsuki's back, but Shizuru did not seem to be affected, though the older girl did slow the approach of her hands. She rested the tips of her fingers very carefully, and very gently, on Chikane's face, just around her eyes.

The youngest girl's eyebrows lifted, obviously in surprise.

Shizuru studied Chikane's face carefully, quietly, her own brow knitted with worry and concentration. Natsuki was about to ask her girlfriend what she was doing when Shizuru finally spoke.

"... why were you crying?" She asked, her Kyoto-ben soft but imploring.

Chikane's eyes widened further and she quickly turned her head to the side, out of Shizuru's soft grasp.

"..."

Natsuki frowned. Getting up, she went over to where Shizuru and Chikane were standing, and tried to see what Shizuru had seen.

True enough, Natsuki had been so distracted by the monstrous yellow gleam in the one iris, and the dead dullness in the other, she had barely noticed the tell tale red rimming around their edges, and the puffiness just under them.

Chikane didn't answer right away, but her arm began to tremble ever so slightly, and Natuski realized she had clenched her fists. Finally, tears welled up and spilled from the corner of her eyes, and Chikane rubbed lightly at them.

"... forgive me, Shizuru-sempai. Natsuki-sempai." She said, hoarsely. "I don't mean to make you worry. It's just... it's been a rough day."

Natsuki bit her lip, and looked over at Shizuru, who returned her worried look.

As one, they both stepped forward and pulled the girl into a comforting hug.

Chikane trembled for a long time.

It took a while, but finally, the student council president was able to regain her composure, and her friends released her.

"Thank you, Sempai." She said, the gratefulness clear in her voice. "I... needed that."

Natsuki gave her roommate a weak smile.

It was Shizuru again, who was helpful once more. "Chikane-san," she said softly. "You really... shouldn't go around looking like that." The oldest girl paused, and then continued in explanation. "How would you like to go see an optometrist? I know a good one in town who could probably fit you a pair of color contacts today if you'd like. That might… help." Shizuru didn't have to elaborate on how.

Chikane raised an eyebrow as she considered this, and then looked away, lost in thought, weighing the merits of the suggestion. She came to a decision quickly enough. "I would like that." She decided. "I would like that very much."

Shizuru smiled, and Natsuki felt a weight lift from her shoulders. "Shall we go then? I think they're still open right now."

So the three girls left Fuuka's dorms and took the bus back into town where traffic had ground to a halt due to an unexpected and inexplicable pile up on the streets at a busy intersection. It had happened hours ago, and blocks away, but traffic was still snarled. Getting off the bus to walk the rest of the way, the friends subconsciously fell silent as they let the sounds of the worried and excited people all around them occupy their attention.

_Inexplicable damage? Accidents in the middle of the day no one could remember seeing the cause of?_

Natsuki frowned to Shizuru as the gossip filtered through the air.

They were all too familiar with the potential causes of such destruction.

Chikane didn't say anything.

At the optometrist, after scaring the good doctor almost out of his wits, Chikane was fitted for a pair of deep, deep blue lenses with no prescription. It took her a few tries to pop the accessories in, but the smile that came onto her face told Natsuki her roommate thought it was worth it.

The student council president's eyes still didn't look quite right for her. The blue had combined with the yellow underneath to turn her irises into a dark, murky greenish color that hide the crack-like vein, but wasn't very close to Chikane's original blue-green, and her left pupil was still strangely elongated, but at least people wouldn't look on her with fear and revulsion from across the street.

Chikane thanked Shizuru with a heartfelt smile, and offered to buy dinner at a nearby cafe.

They talked through the simple meal, joking lightly (if a bit strained) as though they were three normal teenagers with not a care in the world, and for a couple of hours, Natsuki almost forgot about the Hime mark on her back and could believe that things were back to normal.

Chikane let them know now dreadfully dull her summer vacation was, and how overly protective her mother had become.

"Oh, speaking of Okaa-sama," Chikane quickly took out her phone and gave her friends a smile. "Would you mind taking a picture with me so I can send it back to her?" Natsuki and Shizuru complied, and came to stand behind her. Chikane smiled, while Natsuki gave her bunny ears. At the last second, Shizuru pretended to plant a kiss on her cheek, causing Chikane to look surprised while Natsuki ended up giving both of them a somewhat bewildered look.

Chikane laughed, looking at the picture fondly. "Thank you." She said, smiling at her friends, and obviously meaning it. She sent the picture off to her waiting mother, along with a message that she had arrived in Fuuka without incident.

"You're really good to your mother," Natsuki said softly, feeling an ache in her heart as she thought of her own. Shizuru slipped her hand into Natsuki's own, and the biker realized that thoughts of her mother didn't hurt as much as they once did.

"Not really. It's my own fault, for worrying her so," Chikane admitted softly as she sat back in her chair. "So I can sort of understand. But it was... inconvenient, having to ask permission to leave the apartment every time, even if it was just to go to the library to use the computer." Chikane sighed. "I didn't realize how much I'd come to rely on the laptop I left here."

"So then what did you do all summer?" Natsuki asked curiously.

"... a lot of brooding, I'm afraid." Chikane admitted weakly. It was pretty obvious she didn't feel the smile on her face. "But enough about me, how has everyone else been?"

Natsuki traded a pointed look with Shizuru that did not go unnoticed by their friend, though she was too polite to call them out on it.

"It's been a strange summer for us as well," Shizuru finally settled for saying with a sigh. "Some unsettled business from the prior year kept many of us busy. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt, so let us not talk about that." And like that, the oldest girl was able to dismiss the topic masterfully. "I am glad you are back, Chikane-san," Shizuru continued with a teasing smile. She gave Natsuki a wink out of the corner of her eye. "Though I must admit I will lament not being able to sleep over so freely with Natsuki anymore..."

Natsuki colored while Chikane simply smiled knowingly, though there was quite a bit of sadness in that smile.

Dinner ended and the friends decided to walk back to campus. It was a long walk, over an hour, but the weather was still warm and the journey was uneventful. Upon returning to campus, Shizuru parted ways to head over to the university's dormitories, giving Natsuki a light peck on the cheek and teasing, "don't get too carried away tonight."

Natsuki sighed. Right. There was still a ridiculous amount of homework waiting for her.

Begrudgingly, she went back to the books while Chikane was reunited with her long missed laptop and they spent the rest of the evening quietly.

Natsuki had become accustomed to living alone again over summer vacation, so she had completely forgotten about Chikane's return. When she disrobed and then went into the bathroom for her evening shower, she gave a loud "gah!" in surprise upon seeing Chikane already naked in the bathroom.

In her confusion, Natsuki dropped her own towel, and pedaled backwards into the already closed door, slamming into it with a 'bam!' Turning bright red, she hastily bent down and picked up her dropped towel, holding it to her chest. She stared at Chikane with wide eyes.

In direct contrast to Natsuki's inelegant comedy routine, Chikane's reaction was small to non-existent. She simply looked at her roommate through the mirror, not moving from her position of being slightly bent over the sink. Her long, still wet, hair had been pulled over one shoulder, leaving her back bare.

In the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades, was what looked like a darkened brand, too intricate to be a scar. The mark was made up of an upward turned crescent moon on the bottom that seemed to cradle a pointed circular mass of intricately interlocking lines.

"I'm sorry," Natsuki finally mumbled, blushing bright red. "I totally forgot you came back!"

"That's alright," Chikane replied, straightening up and turning to face her roommate. Natsuki couldn't help but color, though her younger roommate did not appear to have any conniptions about nudity. "I'm almost done. I can dry my hair outside." Unplugging the hair dryer and grabbing a towel, Chikane went to move passed Natsuki.

Natsuki's dread-tinged curiosity got the better of her. "Um, Chikane," she said hesitantly before the other girl left the bathroom. "What's that?" She motioned towards the mark on the younger girl's back.

Chikane's face was an expressionless mask. "Just a birth mark." She said.

Natsuki frowned. "I haven't seen it before."

"Then I suppose my bare skin just doesn't capture your attention. I wonder if I should be insulted." Chikane smiled dryly and left the bathroom, leaving Natsuki to her thoughts.

Natsuki took her time, brooding a little as she washed and soaked.

She was faaaairly certain that she would have been Chikane's back before, at some point, hadn't she? She wasn't sure.

Still, Chikane didn't seem worried at all about it, so, should she be?

_... and... at least it's not the Hime mark…_

By the time Natsuki was finished in the bathroom, Chikane had already crept into bed and fallen asleep. Silently, Natsuki crawled into her own bed.

* * *

This time, Natsuki knew she was dreaming right away. She was standing on the beach in the moonlight, wearing her biking leathers – what she had worn when they'd all gone out that night to look for their missing friend.

Looking around, she realized with a start that Chikane was standing beside her, wearing her blue and white bikini with the collared shirt over top. She was facing the other direction, away from the beach. Natsuki frowned and turned around. In front of her was the dark mouth of a foreboding cave.

"... Chikane?" Natsuki asked softly.

The girl didn't answer her.

She reached out to try to touch her roommate's shoulder. It didn't really surprise her when her fingers went right through the girl.

Natsuki looked down at her hand. _Am I a ghost now too? _Looking around at her surroundings, Natsuki kept an eye out for the familiar purple haired woman she'd seen before in these situations, but the woman did not manifest.

She turned her attention back to the cave that had enraptured Chikane so, and faintly, but growing ever louder, Natsuki thought she could hear the sound of footsteps. It didn't make much sense to Natsuki for shoes to make that loud, 'thocking' sound against watery sand, but that didn't stop the noise from echoing.

Then a tall, dark skinned man in a militaristic white suit walked out from the cave.

He was beautiful.

No other words could be used to describe his tall, lean statue, his broad chest, his fine features. He had tucked his hands into his pockets casually. His pale lavender hair was long and unbound, falling to his shoulders, and his green eyes seemed to glow with power.

He smiled, a perfect, white smile.

Chikane stared at him, suspicion clear on her features. Chu Chu was hissing and spitting at the man from Chikane's ankles, and after a few moments, the monkey ran off.

The man spoke before Chikane could. "... Hello, Anthy. Or do you prefer, Chikane?"

Chikane frowned, and Natsuki could sense that her roommate's mind was going at a thousand miles a second. "If you know my name already," Chikane finally replied, somewhat tersely, "then you should know what I prefer to be called."

The man did not appear offended by her curt words. He only continued to smile. "Then how about, '_Daughter_'?

Natsuki boggled.

Chikane's eyes narrowed.

No one said anything for what felt like forever.

Hesitantly, the biker studied the hard look on her roommate's face, to try to see what the other girl was making of this, but beyond the narrowed eyes, Chikane's face did not betray a hint at all of what she was thinking.

_They look nothing alike!_ Natsuki thought to herself, looking back and forth between the ageless man and her roommate.

And yet, despite this, somehow, she got the distinct impression that he was not lying...

The man didn't say anything else. He simply smirked, turned on his heels, and walked back into the cave, his footsteps echoing loudly.

Natsuki bit her lip. She looked over at Chikane again.

Her roommate was clenching her fists. After a moment, Chikane followed the man into the darkness.

Cursing, Natsuki followed her roommate.

Natsuki realized very quickly that there was something very, very wrong with the cave. The ground was no longer gravel, sand and water, but had somehow become hard rock. Candles she swore she should have been able to see from the outside, but hadn't, were placed in regular intervals in carved alcoves embedded in the wall. Chikane was directly in front of her, purposefully walking onwards, and after a few minutes of this, Natsuki realized that rather than a cave, this had to be a tunnel.

A very, very long tunnel.

Suddenly, the sound of whispery giggles reached Natsuki's ears.

_Did you hear? Did you hear?_

"Who's there?!" Natsuki demanded, whirling around. But she could not see anything – only moving shadows, caused by the flickering of the candles.

Ahead of her, Chikane pressed on. The girl did not seem to be hearing what Natsuki was hearing.

_A princess! A princess! A summer ice princess! _

Natsuki stopped dead in her tracks, the dread in her stomach now fully blossomed into out and out fear. There was no mistaking who the shadowy voices were speaking about. "Who's there?" She said again, swallowing.

_She shouldn't be here! She'll ruin it all! _

_Oh, relax, B-ko! Here is not there; here is simply a dream! She wasn't there, at all, remember?_

_Wasn't she? Wasn't she? Oh, silly me, you are right! Ahahaha! Then does this mean, we have an audience?_

And suddenly, many voices seemed to chatter excitedly in the darkness, and Natsuki could have sworn that the shadows themselves were starting to look more and more like a gaggle of very long limbed, angular girls.

_An audience! An audience! Let's have a performance! Dim the lights and cue the actors! Let's put on a show! _

_Oh, it's been so long since we've put on a show!_

_Which show should we do? Which show should we do?_

_The story of the prince?_

_Ugh, lame! We do that one all the time! Let's tell something new! And something old too!_

_I know! I know! How about, the story of the sun? And the story of the moon?_

_Fantastic! I love it! Let's do it! Let's do it!_

Dazed and mesmerized, Natsuki watched with widened eyes as the shadows began to dance on the wall, seeming to run about, this way and that. The dim lights from the candles suddenly flared, alighting one of the walls, and even as Natsuki watched, two spherical images appeared, made by nothing she could see.

_Once upon a time, the sun and the moon lived in the sky! They loved each other very, very much, but were destined to be apart, for one held dominion over the day, while the other reigned only at night. Still, there was harmony, as they both sat in the sky, and shone their light down on the earth. _

_Then, one day, a black hole appeared in the solar system, the gravity of its despair so great, it threatened to swallow the sun. _

_I'll protect you, cried the moon, for she was used to the darkness already, and thought that this was nothing she could not handle._

As Natsuki watched, a black shadow appeared on the scene, and floated over top of the moon. After a while, the shadow left the scene, and the moon was now no longer a perfect circle; a sliver was missing from it.

_Again and again, the black hole appeared, threatening the sun, and again and again, the moon leapt to the sun's rescue. _

The black shadow appeared on the scene again and again, floating over top of the moon. Every time it left, another piece of the moon was gone, until it was thinned to the barest of crescents, a former fraction of itself. The thin crescent slice, all that remained of the moon, pointed upwards.

_Oh no! Cried the moon. Look at me! I am but a shadow of my former self. I cannot even light up the night sky for the earth anymore! How could the sun possibly love me anymore? I am darkness myself! I am no longer worthy of the sun!_

_Bitterly, the moon ran away, out of the earth's sky, but by that time, she was so darkened, she could not be seen anymore anyway. Neither the earth nor the sun even realized that the moon was gone. The sun continued to shine, happy and secure in her false knowledge that the moon still hung in the sky, looking out for them still, even though she could not be seen._

_The moon wandered the galaxy, alone, drifting amongst the planets, until she came across a red star. _

Natsuki felt a chill go down her back as a tiny red light, the same tiny red light she could see constantly up in the sky these days, appeared on the wall of the tunnel, just beside the crescent moon.

_Oh, moon, do not be sad, said the red star. Come, I know a way to make things right. Here is what you must do. You must wrap your despair around yourself, and become as dense as the black hole you fought, until you are so grand and so dense, and your gravity so powerful, that not even light can escape from you. That way, the sun will come to you!_

_But I don't want to do that, replied the moon. How will that make me any different from the black hole that I saved the sun from? And yet, even though the moon said this, she could not refute the seductive logic of the red star..._

As Natsuki watched, something seemed to flicker in the empty space just above the crescent moon. Natsuki's eyes widened as she stared at the flickering symbol, which steadily and steadily became more and more clear. And then, the epiphany hit Natsuki like a ton of bricks as she realized where she'd seen that symbol before:

On Chikane's back.

And as Natsuki had this realization, suddenly, the lights went out and all was dark.

"What's happening?!" Natsuki cried. "What's going on?"

Suddenly, she heard the sound of snapping fingers, and the candles in the walls came on again, though they flickered like normal candles now, and the shadows were no longer of the play of the sun and the moon and the star. They simply danced with the flickering of the candle light.

But the giggles in the air told Natsuki that her story tellers were still around.

_So! Did you hear? Did you hear? Do you know what the moon chose to do? _

"What?" Natsuki cried, suddenly feeling as though she must know the answer. As though everything depended on that answer. "What did the moon choose to do?"

_Well, you're not going to find out just standing there! Hurry, she's been at the end of this tunnel for a while now! If you don't go now, you'll miss the climax completely! _

Natsuki blinked. Slowly, she turned her head and stared down the tunnel where Chikane had disappeared.

_Hurry!_

And Natsuki found herself running. "Chikane!" She cried, her voice not echoing in the tunnel, though it should have. "Chikane!"

Her friend was long gone.

Cursing, Natsuki ran down the tunnel. She ran and she ran and she ran, but she could not tell how much time had passed. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have been days.

"Okay, if this is a dream, I'd really like to wake up now!" Natsuki cried to no one in particular.

_Oh, trust us! You wouldn't! You're just getting to the good part and you've got great seats! But oh! Watch out for the splatter zone, okay? That stuff won't come out even with dry cleaning! And let's not even talk about what happens if it gets on your soul! Yikes!_

"Shut up!" Natsuki cried, wanting very much to do exactly the opposite of what the shadows were urging her to do, and yet finding herself compelled to just keep running.

She didn't know what she was running for. She didn't know what she was expecting to find.

Until she found it.

Without warning, the tunnel suddenly ballooned into a massive, maaaassive cavern, and in the middle of it, Natsuki saw the gigantic, dead, bleeding body of Kiyohime, bound to the floor with a series of huge chains cutting into the flesh of each of her necks, as well as her body. Each link in the chain was thicker than her thigh and longer than her arm. Numerous wards with arcane symbols written on them were also wrapped around the beast.

Most of the hydra's heads had been lopped off. There was sticky inky green blood everywhere.

Standing in front of the beast, covered in gore and holding a katana sword dripping with blood, was Chikane. She was breathing heavily, as though she'd just finished a great exertion.

Beside her stood the man in white, his hand still in his pockets, a dispassionate look on his face.

Natsuki froze, her eyes wide with horror. Instinctively, Shizuru's image came to her mind, her girlfriend's sadly smiling face as she held her, disappearing, disintegrating into tiny green lights. She dropped to her knees. She stared at the sight of the carnage, unable to comprehend what she was seeing...

... and then, she realized, that the massive dead creature in front of her was _not_ Kiyohime.

Kiyohime had six heads, each with a frill that resembled a cobra's, all attached to one larger head that made up the main mass of the Child.

This beast had _eight_ heads, seven of them severed, and none sporting the cobra's frill. The massive necks made up the majority of its mass, whereas Kiyohime's body made up most of its. The necks were covered in purple scales with a line of fearsome, long, sharp spikes protruding down each, and then attached directly to a serpentine tail.

One of the giant, yellow, malicious eyes on its last attached head was looking up at Chikane, glazed and bleeding. Its last mouth was pulled back into a malicious sneer.

A thunderous voice ripped through the cavern, echoing and bouncing back and forth. It was loud, and sounded very much like eight voices at once.

KILL ME, LUNAR MIKO! DESTROY ME! YOU CAN NEVER HOPE TO BE FREE FROM ME SO LONG AS I AM BUT BOUND AND NOT DESTROYED. END ME! END ME NOW!

Chikane didn't move, but Natsuki could see the arm holding onto the sword was trembling.

And then, with a cry of anguish, Chikane lifted the weapon up over her head, and with both hands, swung downwards. The swing was true and sliced clean through the creature's neck, sending inky green blood spraying into the air. The last head, now severed, rolled away from its neck, its mouth still stretched into a twisted grin.

There was silence in the cavern. All-encompassing silence.

And then, Natsuki heard laughter.

Horrible, triumphant, megalomaniacal laughter.

The entire cavern rumbled ominously, moaning and shaking and shuddering, sending loose rock and rubble falling.

IT IS DONE. I AM NO MORE. THE AGE OF OROCHI, THE EIGHT HEADED DEMON OF DESPAIR, IS FINALLY ENDED...

... SO STARTS THE AGE OF THE NEW INCARNATION OF DESPAIR.

The sword Chikane held in her hand clattered to the ground as the girl suddenly gave a blood curling scream and grabbed her head. Stumbling backwards, she would have fallen down, but the man in white caught her even as she thrashed and screamed.

Still holding her with one arm, he reached into his breast pocket, and brought out a perfectly round but cracked amethyst gemstone.

As Natsuki watched in horror, the man took one of Chikane's hands and wrenched it away from her face.

Then, he pushed the gemstone into the girl's right eye.

And Chikane continued to scream, doubly loud.

* * *

"AAAH!" Natsuki cried, bolting upright. "AAH! AAAH!" Scrambling and flailing her arms, her heart racing at a thousand beats per second, Natsuki fell out of bed and smacked her head on the ground.

She didn't even feel it. Scuttling to her feet, she whipped her eyes over to stare at Chikane, who had also bolted up in bed, yellow eyes wide with fear and surprise.

Natsuki stared at Chikane's eyes, and the realization hit her like a bolt of lightning.

Chikane's left eye, the brightly glowing yellow one, was exactly the same as the one she had seen on the monster in her dream. Natsuki's own eyes widened in recognition, and even as this happened, the subsequent narrowing of Chikane's eyes told her that her roommate _knew_ she knew.

They stared at each other.

And then, seemingly faster than the naked eye, Chikane pulled one hand back, even as she moved the other one forward. There was a bright blue flash of energy, and a brightly glowing blue-green bow and arrow appeared in her hands, arrow pulled back and ready to be loosed directly in between Natsuki's eyebrows.

At the same time, Natsuki whipped both her arms forward, her hands making instinctive grabbing motions in the air. Her trusty elements, twin derringer pistols with spherical cylinder cases, appeared at her calling, materializing into her ready grasp, fingers on triggers, pointed at Chikane's face.

Both roommates stared at each other, eyes wide with fear and surprise, hearts pounding deafening in their ears, breaths held and suffocating.

Natsuki had no idea how long they stayed like that, the tension so acute a stiff breeze would have set them off.

It was Chikane who spoke first. Her voice was quiet, and terse. She did not drop her attack stance.

"Natsuki-sempai," Chikane said, in low, dangerous tones. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Chi-ka-ne = 'The melody of a thousand songs'

Chi-kan = Pervert

Chi-ca-ne-ry (in English) = Deception by artful subterfuge

Many thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement! ^_^ Work is... ugh, but I'm surviving! (And I just really wanted to get this out so I would stop fiddling with it and concentrate...)

Hmm... a question to those kind souls who leave reviews without an ff account (Hi Jet! Thank you for reading! ^_^) ... how should I be responding to your questions? Do you actually have an account so I can PM? Is it bad form to use the review function to answer questions...?

Anyhoo, the next chapter should be out in a couple of weeks!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: STORY TIME!

[NATSUKI is in the tunnel, sitting in a lazy-boy recliner and munching on pop-corn.]

NATSUKI: Hey, are we gonna get this show started or what?

[The images of A-KO and B-KO, the SHADOWGIRLS from Utena pop up on the wall and bow profusely]

A-KO: Sorry about the delay! We're just having a little problem with one of the actresses! She's being a little bit of a diva! Thank you for your patience!

B-KO: [Whispers off stage] Psst! C-KO! What is the hold up?

C-KO: It's D-KO! She refuses to come on stage because we had a blue M&M in the candy bowl! You know how she feels about blue M&Ms!

B-KO: Oh, good grief, we'll have to call in the understudy! Nanami, you're up!

NANAMI: Yes! I have a role in this fic! So who am I playing? The moon? Oh, I was born to play such a dramatic, romantic role!

B-KO: What? We're not doing that story anymore! We're doing the story about the baby cow being sold to the market for slaughter!

NANAMI: ... [Cries tears of frustrations as she turns into NANAMOO with a *poof!*]

* * *

OMAKE II: I Think These Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episodes Are Here to Stay

[NATSUKI can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

NATSUKI: [Reading from a script] Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, Shizuru and I do it. [Boggles] Wait, what?!

SHIZURU: Woohoo! [Starts doing a triumphant jig in the background]

NATSUKI: [Is very confused] Did I miss a memo or something? Isn't there like, a bow and arrow pointed at my face right now? Or is this one of those false advertising things?

SHIZURU: [Stops dancing] What? IT BETTER NOT BE!

NATSUKI: [Starts flipping through the script]... hmm... well, assuming there aren't any massive re-rights between now and then, I don't think it's false advertising, but, as a disclaimer, the author says that the rating of this fic still remains 'T', so, read into that what you will...

SHIZURU: Oh. Nuts. [Is disappointed].

NATSUKI: Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 10 – 'Life Goes On'


	11. Chp 10 - Life Goes On

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 10 (Life Goes On)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

February 9, 2013 – February 18, 2013

Word Count: 9,200

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

_*FIVE WEEKS EARLIER*_

_There is such a loud roaring in your head and it has been going on for so long, you are almost numb to it and it is only because of this numbness that you finally attempt to open your eyes._

_It takes you a few tries, but when you finally get them open, you can see your mother staring at you in absolute horror, as though she doesn't recognize you at all. You blink a few times in confusion, trying to get your eyes to focus, for what they are seeing cannot be right; the expression on your mother's face is distinctly hostile. You've never seen such harmful intent on her countenance before. _

_Wordlessly, she pulls her hand back, and your vision focuses on those pointed fingers. _

_It just doesn't make sense at all. _

_As you look back at her, you swallow, and try to speak, your throat still hoarse from so much screaming. "... okaa-sama?"_

_Your voice does the trick. She blinks, and then blinks again, and again. Slowly, she lowers her raised hands, and you notice that they are shaking. _

_When that happens, that roaring sound gradually appears to dim, and if you concentrate, you realize you can hear things beyond that sound – your mother's voice for example._

_"Chikane?" She is saying, tiny voice trembling. "Baby girl?" Her eyes blink, and then crinkle, and then tears of relief well up and threaten to spill from their corners. "Oh, thank god!" Throwing herself downwards, she hugs you fiercely. "Oh, thank god, thank god, thank god! You're alright!"_

_You don't quite have the heart to tell her that if she was thanking a single god out of the 800 million you know to exist for your supposed well being, then she may have thanked that god a little too soon._

_Something loud and malicious gives a bark of harsh laughter and insists that that god does not exist, and even if he did, he would not be looking out for you anymore. HE – I – YOU are your only ally now. _

_You squint and grit your teeth as you try to sort through the jumbled thoughts in your head. _

_You are fairly certain that some of these thoughts are not your own._

_Eventually, your mother releases you. "You're grounded until you're thirty!" She cries. "What the hell were you thinking?"_

_It takes a while for her words to make sense in your head, and you realize that she is joking. Swallowing down the dizziness you feel, even as you try to push that... that NOISE out of your mind, you fake a smile for her. "Okaa-sama, isn't that a bit unreasonable? I mean, how about you ground me until __**you**__ turn thirty? "_

_"You don't get to negotiate your own punishment when you make me worry like that!" She frowns. "Chikane, what happened to you? Your eyes..."_

_You frown. "What do you mean?" You ask, even as the noise returns, sounding like something crossed between maniacal laughter and shouting._

_She hands you a hand mirror and you stare at yourself, eyes wide with shock._

_Everything goes silent for a moment, but that is not a mercy. _

_As you stare in the mirror, you can see what you – no, not YOU, but another – oh god, who's in here?! – have become._

_You are broken. Hideously broken. There is a large break stretching through you, reminding you constantly of your humiliating failure at the hands of those damnable – no! What? That's not you! That is NOT you! Who are you? Get OUT of here! OUT!_

_Suddenly, rage and wrath the intensity of which you've never felt before, at least, not in this lifetime, overcomes you. Unable to restrain yourself, you fling the mirror at the wall, and it breaks into tiny pieces._

_The air echoes with the sound of glass breaking, and then echoes again with horrified silence._

_The puny, insignificant woman - YOUR MOTHER! THAT IS YOUR MOTHER! - stares at you in horror. "C-Chikane...!" _

_"I'm sorry." You say, clenching your fists, even as you desperately wrestle with whoever it is in the back of your head. Oh gods, are you ever sorry._

_He, she, it, they, are trying to force their way into the front of your mind, into your body, your hands and your arms and your legs and your heart. _

_Your mother is squeezing your hands and you don't realize how hard you are squeezing back._

_"Chikane, what happened?" She pleads with you for the truth. _

_But you cannot tell her. You cannot tell anyone. _

_No one can know what you've done. _

_No one can know what you've become._

_At least, not until you've seen this through to the end, and those damnable Hime pay with their lives, and the lives of their most important people, and everyone else for that matter –GET OUT!_

_You grit your teeth. _

_Strength, you pray. Please, someone, anyone, give me strength!_

_And of course, there is only one who has ever been able to give you the power to do what has to be done._

_Himeko. _

_Her name galvanizes you, and with a mighty push, against a defiant roar, you somehow manage to shove whoever that is down, away, out. Down down down down down._

_It takes supreme effort, and you are shaking again, but suddenly, there is stillness in your head, silence._

_But not peace._

_The sudden lack of noise in your head leaves you feeling almost empty, and nauseous. The room spins._

_" Chikane? Oi! Chikane!" _

_There is so much worry in your mother's voice it hurts._

_Breathing deeply, you close your eyes, and ask your mother a question you have never asked before, knowing how much it would hurt her._

_"Who was he?' _

_She is stunned. "What?"_

_"Father." You say softly. "Who was he?"_

_She can only continue to stare at you._

_And suddenly, you feel pain in your hand, and you realize that now she is the one grasping your hand so hard her nails are drawing blood._

_You have never seen such hatred in her eyes before, not even before, when she raised her hand against you, as she demands, "what does Akio have to do with this?"_

_'Akio', you think. _

_So, that is his name._

* * *

"Natsuki-sempai," Chikane finally said, in low, dangerous tones. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Natsuki held her roommate's stare, even as her heart pounded away in her ears. "Only if there's something you want to tell me." She finally replied.

Arrows and pistols remained leveled at their respective faces for what felt like eternity.

And then finally, Chikane took a deep breath, and very slowly lowered her arms, her eyes not leaving Natsuki's at all. Seeing this, Natsuki also mirrored the motion, though she kept her fingers on the triggers. When their weapons were at least pointed to the ground, Natsuki waited for Chikane's light-based bow and arrow to dematerialized before she finally released her own elements.

Only then did they both release simultaneous sighs. Chikane hesitantly pushed her legs over the side of her bed in a proper sitting position, and rubbed her face warily.

Natsuki, her own legs feeling like jelly, weakly plopped herself down onto the edge of her own bed.

"Are you one of the 'Hime'?" Chikane finally asked.

Natsuki frowned. "What do you know about the Hime?"

"I know Shizuru-sempai and Director Himeno did a very good job wiping away almost all mention of them and Yukino-sempai's tried very hard to bury anything that occasionally resurfaces," the student council president said, "... but they couldn't get rid of everything."

The biker was stunned. "You mean you've known everything all along?" She blurted.

Chikane's expression was suspiciously neutral. "No. Not everything, not even close to everything. I just know that there was a series of incidents last year involving students and what I presume to be monsters, straight out of children's fairy tales, that caused most of the property damage." The tone in her voice was the tone of someone who would have once thought the words coming out of her mouth to be absolutely ridiculous, but no longer.

"I don't know who all the Hime are, for example, but if you are one," she thought about it, "then I suppose Shizuru-sempai is one also? And perhaps... Suzushiro-sempai?"

Natsuki shook her head. "No, Haruka wasn't." She paused. "Isn't."

"Hmm." Chikane considered this.

And Natsuki couldn't help but wonder if it had been a bad idea to tell her roommate this. She thought back to the initial suspicions they had with each other, when they had first met. She remembered how quickly they'd become friends, after they'd tentatively reached out and shared their hearts with each other, how much time they had wasted before taking those first steps towards trust.

Natsuki swallowed. She didn't want to go backwards. "Then... are you a Hime too? A 14th Hime?" Her eyes went wide. "Are you with Searrs?"

Her roommate's features twisted into confusion. "Searrs?" Chikane shook her head. "No, I don't know anything about them. And, no, I am not a Hime myself."

"Then what are you?" Natsuki pressed. She had not forgotten the mark she had seen on Chikane's back.

Chikane was silent for a long time. Natsuki got the distinct impression she was wrestling greatly with herself. Finally, the younger girl sighed. "It's a bit of a long story. I am the Lunar Priestess. I died 15 years ago."

Somehow, Natsuki got the impression that her roommate had just told her something incredibly personal and important. But those words had absolutely no meaning to Natsuki at all, who could only stare back at her roommate in complete incomprehension. "So... you're a ghost too?" She tried, suddenly remembering the purple haired woman she hadn't seen in a while.

Chikane's face did a weird scrunch up, as if to say, 'are you serious?' but she didn't actually respond with such sass. Instead, she shook her head firmly. "No. I was... reborn."

Nasuki stared at Chikane like she had two heads, her own mind trying to process the significance of those words. "Reborn? What the-? Hang on, start from the beginning!" Her mind was going a thousand questions a second, even as she tried to rearrange her thoughts into some semblance of order.

Unfortunately, before she could start with the next of a billion questions, Chikane suddenly grabbed at her head. All of the questions fled from Natsuki's mouth and she hurried over to her roommate. "Chikane?"

Chikane continued to shake, and Natsuki could tell the other girl was holding in a scream. "It's... nothing." The girl finally gasped out. "Just a... just a headache." She gritted her teeth. "Please, Natsuki-sempai, can we talk later? I... do not feel well."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Natsuki helped the younger girl into bed. She watched as Chikane continued to shiver under the covers for a long time, before finally, mercifully, exhaustion claimed her and she finally fell asleep.

Walking over back to her own bed, Natsuki sat down, and leaned against the wall, watching her roommate sleep.

Rest did not come to her that night.

* * *

_The Obsidian Lord is very, very angry with you. _

_There is a very sharp, pulsating, burning sensation just behind your eyes – all eight sets of them – and you can't seem to get away from it all. Even if you open your eyes, you can't seem to see anything; just a plain of burning hot white. He is screaming so loud, you can barely make out the words. _

_You try to run, to escape, but alas, your body, your necks, are still bound to the ground, sealed under powerful spells and mighty chains and you cannot get away._

_WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! TELLING THEM THE TRUTH?! TELLING THEM ABOUT THE PAST?! YOU ARE TO DESTROY THE HIME – ALL OF THEM! THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS! THEY CANNOT HELP YOU! ONLY I CAN! ACCEPT ME! ACCEPT ME NOW, AND USE MY POWER TO BREAK YOUR BONDS! WE SHALL DESTROY THEM ALL AND CLAIM THIS WORLD AS OUR OWN, TO RE-WRITE IT AS WE SEE FIT! IT IS THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL GET YOUR HEART'S DESIRE!_

_You try desperately to get away from him, anywhere for relief, for release, but you are bound, and he attacks, and it__** hurts**__. It feels as though he is running you through, over and over again, as though he stabs and cuts at you with a hundred thousand blades, and just when you think you can take no more, you feel a pull, a hard pull, on your shoulder (shoulder? You don't have shoulders any more, do you?)._

_Suddenly, you find yourself falling, falling, and falling and, somehow, within your mind-scape, you find yourself human again – one head and two arms, rather than eight and none, and it stuns you so much you aren't quite sure what to do with yourself._

_And then you see it. _

_A coffin, an open coffin, filled with white roses._

_Sanctuary. _

_A woman – that woman – with cascading waves of purple hair and unreadable, ancient eyes, stands just beside it, and stares imploringly at you. Her eyes cast down at the coffin, and then look back up at you again._

_It can only be an invitation._

_You look up, and above you, upside-down, you can see the pitiful form for an eight-headed monster, bound and chained, and writhing in agony as an endless cascade of giant, glowing, red eyes flash, appearing and disappearing only to reappear again, all over it, sending gouts of inky green blood spraying with each apparition. _

_He has not yet noticed that you have managed to free a small piece of yourself from him._

_You look back over at the coffin, at the woman, the one who has been with you for so much of your life._

_Slowly, you take one hesitant step towards the box, and then another, before you lower yourself into its confines, curling up into a fetal position. _

_A moment later, the woman closes the lid._

_It blocks out the noise of the Obsidian Lord completely._

_But it blocks out everything else too._

* * *

The text at 6:30 in the morning told Shizuru that something had happened between her girlfriend and her roommate. The look on Natsuki's face at 7:15 am told Shizuru that that 'something' was not good.

"You don't look like you slept at all," Shizuru said, putting a hand on Natsuki's face and letting her thumb gently massage at the bags under the younger girl's eyes.

"I don't think I did," Natsuki admitted, stifling a yawn poorly.

"What happened?" Shizuru asked, feeling the worry start to build up in the pit of her stomach.

"Let's get to Fumi's. I think it might be best to explain once, with everyone there."

Shizuru nodded. It had been a difficult request to fulfill when she had received Natsuki's text earlier that morning, '_can we get everyone together, ASAP?_' As many of the Hime as Shizuru could notify were meeting at Director Himeno (formerly, Director Kazahana)'s residence for a breakfast meeting.

When they got there, Fumi was seated at the table already, as was Yukino, Midori, and surprisingly, Nao. The expression on the red haired novice nun's face, and the way she was nursing her coffee cup, suggested that it wasn't an extremely early morning for her so much as an extremely late night. Shizuru and Natsuki sat down, and servants served them tea and coffee respectively upon their request.

Mai, Mikoto and Akira had yet to come, and Shizuru let the others know that they may not show up, as they had not responded to her messages that morning.

"So, what brings us all together this morning, Kuga-san?" Fumi asked in her high, feathery voice, even as she sipped at her coffee.

Natsuki rubbed her face, and looked like she wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to say what was on her mind. It wasn't until Shizuru gave her hand a squeeze under the table did the biker finally sigh and spit out what was on her mind. "It's Chikane. She's wrapped up in this somehow."

The other girls and women around the table held expressions of surprise, while Shizuru pursed her lips together a little. As soon as she had seen those alien eyes on their friend's face yesterday, she had dreaded the worst. It had taken almost all of her self control last night not to constantly text Natsuki to make sure her girlfriend was alright (the last thing she wanted to be was overbearing), but seeing Natsuki's state this morning made her wish that she'd listened to her instincts.

"What makes you say this?" Fumi asked, brow furrowing.

"I had a dream about her."

Now the silence at the table turned awkward, as several sweatdrops appeared over several heads.

Nao rolled her eyes and stood up. "Oh, praise the lord, it all makes sense now." She said flatly. "I can't believe I am not in bed right now because you were dreaming about your roommate, Kuga. Let me guess. Was she mostly naked in this one?"

Natsuki turned bright red. "She had a swimsuit on!"

Yukino looked uncomfortable while Shizuru stifled a smile when Natsuki shot her a glare.

"But that's beside the point," Natsuki hurried on. "Because after I had a dream, I woke up, and she was pointing a bluey-greeny glowing energy bow and arrow thingy in my face."

Now Shizuru's eyes widened. "... and why was she doing this?" She asked softly, feeling a grave disquiet in her heart.

The look on Shizuru's face must told Natsuki what lines she was thinking along, because the biker suddenly explained further, "um, it was self defense!" She said quickly. "Because, well, I, uh, might have been pointing my elements at her too..."

Now this news prompted much more reaction from the other girls.

"What?" Midori asked, even while Yukino frowned intensely, and Nao stood up again, saying, "you can summon your elements now?"

Natsuki nodded and then pulled her derringer pistols from thin air to demonstrate. This prompted the other five women at the table to try too, but to no avail.

"I haven't been able to summon Duran though," Natsuki advised, before launching into the tale of what happened yesterday to everyone quickly. She talked about Chikane's unusual eyes, and about the mark on Chikane's back. She talked about what the other girl had said about being the Lunar Priestess, and dying 15 years ago. She told them what she could remember of the dream, though those memories were fragmented and there was not much sense that she could make of them.

"There were shadows," Natsuki said, hesitantly. "They were telling me a story. Something about the sun and the moon."

"... shadows?" Fumi raised an eyebrow. "Mashiro-sama once spoke of shadows that speak in riddles and laughter. They are observers of the universe, spirits who chronicle fates and destinies." She looked at Natsuki incredulously. "You were able to hear them, Natsuki-san?"

Natsuki nodded hesitantly. "I think so, but..." she grit her teeth. "I can't remember all of the details."

Fumi frowned. "A pity."

The silence that stretched on was uncomfortable. Shizuru rubbed Natsuki's back; it was obvious to her the younger girl was upset at herself for not being able to fully remember, or decipher, potentially important clues.

Finally, Fumi looked at Midori. "Sugiura-sensei, this 'Lunar Priestess'. wasn't she mentioned in Nagi's book?" The Director had given Midori the leather volume – the one Nagi had passed to her when he and Mashiro had left this world – at the beginning of summer, when everyone's marks had returned, so that the teacher could study it for clues Fumi may have missed.

Midori nodded. "Yes, I think so, once, but only briefly." She frowned intensely. "You know, I've been thinking about this for a while now, Fumi. Are you sure there was only one volume?"

Fumi nodded back. "Yes, as far back as I can remember, Nagi only ever had the one volume."

"Hmm..." Midori thought about this. "That's weird. The way the narrative structure in the book is setup, I could have sworn it was the second half of a two volume set. It refers back a few times to something about the incident of Ame no Murakumo, and something about the Miko of the Sun and the Moon. I'm afraid it's not a story I'm familiar with, although, now that I think about it, I think one of my colleagues might be." Midori's lips twitched as she recalled said colleague. "Morimoto Yukihito. Yuki-chan. He lives in the town of Mahoroba."

Fumi frowned. "Hmm... might you investigate this a little further then, Sugiura-sensei?"

Midori nodded. "Of course. I was going to anyway."

The group was silent for a while longer, when Shizuru finally asked, "Natsuki, where is Chikane-san now?"

"She's still asleep," Natsuki replied, and worry came to her face. "I tried to wake her up to come to this, but she won't come to. She's been... moaning quite a bit. I kinda want to get back to her."

Yukino frowned. "If Chikane-san is not doing well, should I count her out of the Kazahana Scholarship Benefit Gala tonight?"

Shizuru also frowned. _Ah yes, the gala is tonight, isn't it?_ She looked over at Natsuki. _We still have to go dress shopping..._

The gala was why Chikane had come back early to Fuuka in the first place, after all. She had put in a lot of work prior to leaving on summer vacation, and throughout the break as well, being in text contact to make sure things were still going according to plan. The Benefit Gala was a fundraiser event in which many of Fuuka Acadamy's most successful alumni donated money towards the endowment that funded the Kazahana Scholarship. As a recipient of the scholarship herself, Chikane had been keen to help ensure the continuation of the scholarship for future beneficiaries.

"That is probably most wise," Fumi confirmed. "Will that be alright, Yukino-san?"

Yukino nodded. "Yes, I think so. We should be fine."

Fumi looked over at Natsuki. "In the meanwhile, please let us know if Chikane-san is feeling better, Natsuki-san?"

Natsuki nodded. "Sure."

The meeting at Fumi's residence thus concluded, Shizuru and Natsuki went back towards the dorms, almost being run over by Mai and Mikoto (Chu Chu sitting on Mikoto's head, and hanging onto the catgirl's braids for dear life).

"Oh! Did we miss it?" Mai asked, her tone obviously frazzled. "I'm sorry, the alarm didn't go off!"

They quickly caught the other two girls up on the meeting, and Mai and Mikoto decided to follow Shizuru and Natsuki back to Natsuki's room.

Curiously, as they approached the dorm room, Chu Chu became more and more agitated, 'chu!'ing distressingly, and tangling herself up in Mikoto's hair in anxiety.

Mikoto frowned. "What's the matter, Chu-suke?" She asked, pulling the small monkey out of her hair. "Aren't you happy to see your master?"

The small monkey-mouse flailed around her arms wildly, doing some sort of elaborate performance dance. Mikoto simply stared at her. "Someone else? What do you mean Hime is someone else now?"

Frustrated, the monkey mouse gave up trying to explain and instead tried to escape by massively inhaling, becoming a round spherical helium ball with ears to float away on wind currents. It was a poor plan of escape, as Mikoto simply held onto the monkey's tail, like she was a small balloon.

Shizuru couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed at this display – that monkey definitely defied all laws of physics and biology. "Has she been like this all summer long, Mikoto?" She asked.

The black-haired wild child shook her head.

Frowning, Natsuki opened the door to their dorm room, and quietly, the friends walked in.

Chu Chu suddenly deflated and would have gone blubbering about the room if Mikoto hadn't had such a tight grip on her tail. Keening piteously, she curled up into a tiny ball, covering her face with her ears and shivering in Mikoto's hands.

Chikane was still curled up in bed. Her eyebrows were knitted tightly together, and there was an expression of obvious discomfort on her face.

Shizuru couldn't help but feel her heart pang with sympathy for the girl, and from the expression on Natsuki's, Mai's and Mikoto's faces, it was obvious the other girls felt poorly too.

Mai put a hand on Chikane's forehead, and put her other hand on her own forehead. "No fever," she murmured, frowning.

"Oi, Hime?" Mikoto gently pushed at Chikane's shoulder. "Hime? Are you okay?"

Chikane only seemed to cringe, and curled up a little tighter.

Seeing this, Mikoto looked over at Mai, an expression of acute discomfort on her face. "What's wrong with Hime?" Mikoto asked. "Is she hurt? Should we get Youko-sensei?"

"That might not be a bad idea," Mai murmured. "Wait here, I'll go get her." She disappeared out the door.

Mikoto looked back at the resting girl.

Chu Chu lifted one ear to peak out at the situation. When the monkey mouse saw her owner in bed, she stopped shivering and gave a 'chu' of concern. Jumping off of Mikoto's palm onto the bed, the monkey walked over to Chikane's face, and put her paws on Chikane's cheek.

"Chu?"

Suddenly, Chikane's eyes snapped wide open, and Chu Chu's terrified, fur-standing-on-end reflection could be seen in the depths of those yellow eyes. The monkey gave a 'CHUUU!' of terror and sprang away from her owner, landing on Mikoto's face.

Chikane swallowed. Weakly, she got up and peered at her visitors. "Mi... Mikoto?" She asked softly, wincing, and not looking directly at them.

"Hime! What happened to you?" Mikoto cried, pulling Chu Chu from her face.

"I'm... alright." Chikane responded slowly, looking anything but. "I've just... got a really bad headache right now." She gave her classmate a smile that was meant to be reassuring, but didn't quite do the trick. "Have you been looking after Chu Chu for me?"

Mikoto nodded. "Yes. Chu-suke's been worried about you too, but," she frowned at the monkey, "stop it, Chu-suke! You're not making any sense!"

Chikane frowned weakly at her pet, and it was obvious to the other girls in the room she was barely holding herself together. "I'm sorry, Mikoto, but... could you... look after Chu Chu for... the next little bit? I just... I really want to lie down..."

Mikoto could only nod, amber eyes brimming with concern.

"Sorry, Sempai," Chikane looked over momentarily at Natsuki and Shizuru, "would you mind leaving now? I'm... I'm fine, really, but... I would appreciate it if I could have some... rest..."

Shizuru traded a worried look with Natsuki, but they complied with their friend's request.

When Mai returned with Sagisawa Youko, Natsuki let the school nurse into the room. A few minutes later, Youko came out of the room, frowning.

"It probably is just a migraine," Youko confirmed. "She should be fine if she can sleep it off. Why don't the rest of you leave her be. I'll check in on her periodically."

It was obvious to Shizuru that Natsuki didn't really want to go. Frowning, she wrapped her fingers around Natsuki's own. The motion seemed to stir Natsuki out of her brooding, and they finally left the area, respecting their friend's wishes.

* * *

It was fairly obvious to Natsuki that both Shizuru and Mai were trying to keep her spirits up by distracting her. When Shizuru had hesitantly mentioned that Natsuki had promised her they'd go dress shopping today, Natsuki had frowned and asked, "is that really still important right now?" She had regretted her words upon seeing the disappointment on Shizuru's face, and hastily agreed to go on the long planned shopping trip, which had already been delayed several times through the summer.

Natsuki knew it was in her nature to brood and obsesses, and she'd spent most of the summer doing so.

But even in the face of supernatural-tinged uncertainty, it was hard to deny life its day to day particularities. She had already spent years of her life solely focused on the Hime Star to the detriment of everything else, to the point where she'd been hopelessly blind to the kindness and affection she was receiving, and the consequences of that had been almost disastrous.

She wasn't about to repeat history.

But that didn't make standing in the high end dress shop in the magenta getup in front of a multitude of brightly lit mirrors that reflected every possible side of her any more comfortable, especially while Shizuru, Mai, and Tate were sitting on the waiting chairs and looking at her with snickers in their eyes.

All three of them were trying various creative tactics to stifle chuckles – Shizuru behind a hand, Mai holding her breath, while Tate was tightly grasping his knees. Only Mikoto, sitting beside Mai holding onto an ice cream cone (while Chu Chu sat on her head, eating her own treat in miniature duplication) was able to look at her without laughing.

"It's... bold," Shizuru said.

"It, uh, flatters your skin tone." Mai tried.

"Uh, yeah." Tate wisely followed the safest possible strategy for any guy in such a situation by agreeing with anything coming out of Mai's mouth.

"Your boobs aren't big enough for it." Mikoto said easily. "That would look way better on Mai."

Tate sweatdropped and looked at the ceiling.

Natsuki's left eyebrow twitched and she glared at the sales associate that had assured her she'd look _'absolutely maaahvellous!'_ "Well, if that's the case, then why don't we have Mai try it on?" This was her third dress already, and she was getting pretty sick of being the sole form of entertainment for her friends.

Mai put her hands up in resignation. "Hey, I'm not the date of a Fuuka alumni who shelled out a ridiculous amount of money for a plate at a fancy, black-tie benefit gala, remember? I'm going as a current student of Fuuka, so I'm supposed to be in my school uniform only, so the 'customers' feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic about their own school days..."

Natsuki frowned. She knew Mai had complicated feelings about this. On the one hand, many of their friends and classmates had been sighing in frustration at not being able to dress up pretty for the formal event, and Mai had been one of them. On the other hand, she also realized that it was probably a blessing in disguise; it wasn't like Mai could really afford a fancy new dress anyway.

Tate looked over at his girlfriend, and there was a strange look in his brown eyes. "Hey, if you want to, why don't you try something on anyway?" He suggested.

Mai gave him a sour look.

He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I mean, there's no harm in trying, right?"

"No, but there is harm in falling in love with something I can't afford," Mai muttered.

But then Mikoto looked over at Mai excitedly and said, "I wanna see Mai in that dress!" and the redhead's rubber arm was sufficiently twisted.

Getting up, Mai went over to the dressing room beside the one Natsuki had been using, and they switched, with Mai in the magenta dress while Natsuki moved onto the next one (an uninspiring yellow affair with faaar too many bows and ruffles).

The two friends stared at each other, and then they both pointed and laughed at each other.

"Oh, my, god, this is horrible!" Mai said, looking at herself in the mirror. "Cleavage can't save this dress! I look like a prostitute!"

Tate, demonstrating unusual wisdom today, said nothing at all, while the sales associate tried not to cry.

The two friends spent the next thirty five minutes in a variety of different dresses – long dresses, short dresses, strapless dress, ruffled dresses, mermaid dresses, sequenced dresses... the list went on and on.

By the end of it, Tate had swirls in his eyes and was sweating bullets from having to constantly dodge so many landmines, and even Shizuru was having trouble coming up with silver linings.

It was actually Mikoto who was most helpful with her brutally honest observations.

"That one makes you look fat."

"That one looks like it will fall right off."

"I think I saw Nao wear that once."

"Oh! I like that one – it reminds me of grandpa!"

"Hey, Chu Chu could totally camouflage into that one!"

"Is your butt supposed to stick out like that?"

At one dress, Mikoto's eyes lit up in delight, and Natsuki thought she might have found a winner, until the wild child said, "you look like a marshmallow melted all over a banana! Mai! Mai! Can we go for a sundae after this?"

Twin tears meandered down both Natsuki and Mai's faces as their collective self confidence took the most vicious of beatings.

Finally, Shizuru spoke up. "Natsuki? Mai-san? How about you try these ones." She handed a dark navy dress to Natsuki, and a golden-bronze one to Mai.

Mai habitually went for the price tag and nearly jumped. "This could feed Mikoto for the next semester!"

Tate's eyebrow twitched as he looked over at Shizuru with misgivings for a brief moment, and then looked back at Mai. "Just try it on." He said.

Hesitantly, both girls went back into the dressing rooms. While they were in there, Shizuru motioned for the sales associate to come by and whispered into her ear. The sales person nodded and then went away. She came back with a few peers, carrying various things in their arms and entered into Mai and Natsuki's dressing rooms to the surprise of the occupants.

Tate frowned at Shizuru. "What did you ask for?" He asked.

A sales associate came by and handed Shizuru a cup of tea, which she took with a grateful nod of the head. She looked at Tate out of the corner of her eyes, even as she lifted the cup to her lips, and simply said, "how much longer do you want to stay here?"

Wisely, he did not question her further, simply murmuring thanks when another sales associate came to give him tea, Mikoto some juice, and Chu Chu some milk.

A few minutes later, there came the light tapping sound of high heels against the hard wood floor, and both Shizuru and Tate looked up to see Natsuki and Mai standing before them transformed.

Three of their faces were stunned; one of them smiled in appreciation.

Natsuki was wearing a dramatic, dark navy, spaghetti strapped gown that seemed to have a trail of little crystals shimmering down one side of her dress like the milky-way. It was slim, and hugged her in all the right places, accentuating her lean but feminine form. The upper back was mostly bare (her Hime mark just barely covered), save for where the straps criss-crossed a couple of times. The entire dress was held up by those straps, tied in a bow at her back. The dress did not allow for a bra. She had accentuating accessories on - tasteful necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Her heels were at least 3 inches high, putting her at a slight height premium to Shizuru.

Mai's dress was golden-bronze, and the top was corset style, completely with boning and decorative bronze hardware in the front in the shape of stylized hooks, holding the corset-style top firmly in place while highlighting Mai's cleavage tastefully. The dress shimmered endlessly, shifting in color between gold and bronze. Her waist was cinched dramatically, and the bottom of the dress flowed down to the ground in a flourish, ending in a small train.

She wore a golden necklace with a large green gemstone around her neck and matching earrings.

Both Natsuki and Mai looked like they were blushing a bit, obviously not used to such finery. Their self confidence was so obviously and painfully fragile at that moment that neither Shizuru or Tate were quite sure what to say in order to ensure their respective loved ones just how absolutely gorgeous they looked.

Mikoto opened her mouth first, eyes wide and mesmerized. "You guys look like the stars at night."

Neither Tate nor Shizuru could come up with a better compliment.

Tate insisted on buying Mai the dress, his words awkward, but earnest. _'Maybe you can't wear it tonight, but you'll get to wear it eventually, right? Isn't there supposed to be a formal dance around Christmas or something like that?'_ Mai resisted, but in the end, gave her boyfriend a tight hug, a long kiss, and a megawatt grin he couldn't help but return, rubbing the back of his head.

Mai didn't catch him when he inconspicuously leaned over and asked Shizuru if she could always be present next time they had to go clothes shopping.

* * *

Just as they were about to head back to the dorms on campus, Natsuki received a surprising text from Chikane.

_'I'm sorry to worry you all. I'm just going to stay in bed, I think. Please, enjoy yourselves at the gala. Take pictures; I want stories.'_

The message was exactly what Natsuki needed, exactly when she needed it. They checked in on Chikane, and found her still asleep, but much more peacefully now, so Natsuki went over to Shizuru's apartment instead to get ready for the gala.

Natsuki couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as she looked at herself in Shizuru's full length mirror. She could barely recognize the pretty (sexy) young woman frowning in the mirror back at her.

Natsuki had always known she could be pretty (sexy) if she wanted to be; she just found very few occasions where she wanted to be.

The image in the mirror didn't look like a girl; she looked like a beautiful (sexy) young woman, and Natsuki found some very strange, girlish thoughts swirling inside her head she hadn't known she was capable of. It was a curious, but somewhat perturbing sensation, and not one Natsuki could decide if she liked or not. She had heard someone say once, that the only dress worth putting on was the one that would make others want to take it off of you, and while that fun, flirty philosophy had been largely meaningless to her before, right now, as she looked at herself in the mirror, it was like a whole other world of possibilities she hadn't been aware of was open to her, and Natsuki couldn't help but feel like this dress definitely fit the bill...

... certainly, she could already imagine a certain pair of hands slipping the straps off of her shoulders right now – could imagine the simultaneous coolness and heat generated in the act of discarding clothing and as these thoughts went through her head (and body), she found her gaze shifting away from herself and towards Shizuru's form in the background.

Natsuki's breath caught in her throat.

Shizuru was faced away from her, wearing only flesh colored underwear at the moment. Shizuru's skin was pale and smooth, and Natsuki couldn't help but find her eyes lingering around the curve of her girlfriend's hips and bottom – especially when Shizuru bent over and stepped into her dress.

Coloring, Natsuki quickly turned her eyes away, but found herself unable to keep them away for very long. She watched as the dress went up Shizuru's legs, past that bottom with a wiggle, and up to the middle of her back.

The dress was white, strapless, and bone white in color. The tone reminded Natsuki a little bit of when Shizuru was still in high school, and wore the student council president's blazer, except that the blazer didn't exactly make Natsuki's skin flush and her body warm and her thoughts go all in one direction quite like... like _this_.

It was baffling, really. Though she'd just seen her girlfriend virtually naked, somehow, now that the dress was actually on, Natsuki couldn't help but think about the gorgeous curves underneath and as she imagined this, her mind was somehow leaving Shizuru even more exposed than she already was before...

_Shizuru's dress is worth putting on too._

Natsuki's heart (was that her heart?) began to beat a little more insistently.

Shizuru was dazzling.

Achingly so.

Achingly – in many different body parts – so.

Shizuru caught Natsuki looking at her in the mirror, and winked playfully, even as she put in an earring.

Natsuki quickly turned away, feeling her cheeks burned. Trust Shizuru to catch her when her thoughts were so... so embarrassing.

Turned away as she was, she didn't notice Shizuru approach her until she felt Shizuru's fingers touch her hand to turn it palm up and deposit a care-worn box into it.

Giving her girlfriend a curious look, Natsuki opened the box and found inside a seemingly innocuous, silvery-white hairpiece in the shape of a stunted lightning bolt, or possibly an anvil. Picking it up, Natsuki was surprised that the ornament was quite a bit heavier than it looked.

"What's this?" Natsuki asked, holding the item in her palm.

Shizuru smiled, affixing the decoration into Natuski's hair, just above her left ear. "This was my grandmother's. Careful, it's made of white gold, so it's a little on the soft side. They don't make hair pieces like this anymore."

As Natsuki looked at herself in the mirror, Shizuru flicked on a small switch on the bottom of the hair piece, and Natsuki was surprised when the top portion of the hair clip expand up into a stylized lightning bolt.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Natsuki decided that she really liked the ornament, not the least of which because it was a gift from Shizuru, and apparently an heirloom at that.

Shizuru smiled proudly. "Ara, doesn't it look like it was made for you?"

Natsuki's eyebrows crinkled self-consciously – there was no mistaking the tone in her girlfriend's voice; she meant for her to keep the ornament. "Are you sure you should be giving this to me? I mean, wasn't this a present to you?"

Shizuru smiled. "My grandmother was a very sharp woman. She recognized my preference long before anyone else did in my family, maybe even before I did. She gave that to me to give to my beloved, and well, who else could that belong to but you?"

Natsuki felt her heart skip beats in her chest at her girlfriend's easy admission. "Shizuru..."

"Is it not to Natsuki's taste? Would you have preferred a ring instead?" Shizuru teased, ruby eyes sparkling. "I didn't think Natsuki would demand one of those so quickly."

"What? Oh, god, no way!" Natsuki cried, her heart suddenly racing around even more than it already was. "Shizuru, we can't even legally _drink_ yet!"

And here, the girl from Kyoto laughed. "That's why that's just a hair piece, Natsuki. More will come in due time." Shizuru smiled, even as she played with the hair clip, and pushed the extendable part back down. She moved her hand down to Natsuki's chin, and tilted her head up to give her a chaste peck on the lips.

The innocuous touch of their lips sent a shiver traversing down Natsuki's back with far more intensity than it ought to have.

"Forgive my indulgence, Natsuki," Shizuru said, not sounding very apologetic at all. "I just like seeing my family's things on you."

Those words, and the words Shizuru hadn't said, but Natsuki had heard none the less, hit her with a stronger impact that she would have suspected.

_I like seeing my things on you. You belong to me, after all._

And Natsuki looked away from her girlfriend, feeling suddenly very flattered and also suddenly very... nervous. Shizuru had claimed ownership over her once before, during the festival, and that declaration had left Natsuki far more unsettled, and distraught at the time.

She felt Shizuru's fingers gently take her own, and when she looked back into those ruby depths, Natsuki could see there was a little bit of worry in Shizuru's eyes.

"What's on your mind?" Shizuru asked simply.

Natsuki swallowed, not quite sure how to phrase her feelings, and suddenly thankful that Shizuru was always so patient with her. "... I had fun today." Natsuki finally admitted.

Shizuru chuckled kindly. "Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

"Well, with everything going on..." Natsuki sighed, looking away, that gently pulsating ache inside her ever present. "I guess I just felt like I shouldn't be feeling this way, you know? Like... like it's wrong to be enjoying ourselves when we don't know what's going to happen next."

Then Natsuki felt Shizuru give her fingers a squeeze, even as her other hand gently took Natsuki's chin again and lifted it up so that their gazes met once more.

"Life goes on, Natsuki." Shizuru said softly. "You are absolutely right to worry. Things are tumultuous right now. Isn't that all the more reason to celebrate what we have and to enjoy it while we can?"

Her girlfriend's words resounded loudly in her head, causing the butterflies in her stomach to all take flight. Natsuki couldn't help but give her girlfriend a shy smile as those butterflies wantonly flapped their wings all over her body. At that particular moment, she couldn't help but feel a little bit overwhelmed with feelings of love, of wonder, of affection...

... of desire...

_You belong to me, after all. _

_As I belong to you._

Shizuru gave Natsuki a fond peck on the forehead, and while she was so close to her, Natsuki could almost taste the delicate smell of Shizuru's perfume, weaving delightful intoxication through her senses.

All those butterflies rushed downwards.

When Shizuru went back to the vanity to put in her other earring, Natsuki's eyes followed her silently. She thought back to the beginning of summer, to that night when the Hime Star had blinked back into existence in the sky and it seemed like horrible things were going to happen again.

The Hime Star had rudely interrupted them that night.

But it wouldn't tonight.

Not if Kuga Natsuki had anything to say about it.

"Shizuru?" She asked, softly, feeling her heart pounding everywhere, but especially _there_.

Her girlfriend turned back to look at her curiously.

Cheeks warm, Natsuki slowly reached behind her back and gave one of the straps that held her fragile dress up a pull. Obediently, the bow came undone, and the dress tumbled down to the ground, leaving Natsuki clad in naught but her jewelry and her panties.

Shizuru's eyes widened, and Natsuki couldn't help but feel very pleased that her form had taken the words right out of her girlfriend's mouth.

Blushing horribly, but summoning up her courage even as she did so, Natsuki covered the four steps between them (careful not to trip on her discarded dress), until she stood in front of her girlfriend, and kissed her on the mouth firmly.

Shizuru was still so stunned she wasn't able to respond right away.

She was able to rectify that soon enough, when Natsuki moved her hands up to cradle Shizuru's cheeks, and Shizuru pulled Natsuki closer towards her, the front of their bodies coming to rest against each other. Shizuru let her (slightly shaking) fingertips gently brush down Natsuki's back, from her shoulder blades to her hips, delighting when the sensation prompted Natsuki to shudder and tremble against her.

A few moments later, Shizuru's own dress fell silently to the floor.

They were a little late to the gala.

They didn't particularly care.

* * *

The End of the World frowned.

The Obsidian Lord was going to ruin everything with his impatience.

Sitting in his daughter's room, he watched as she continued to wage war against the aggressor in her mind, as she'd been doing for most of the day, an expression of suffering on her face as the fractured and broken god of ambition and greed continued to berate and attack her from within her own mind-scape, screaming in rage and fury at her for her continued refusal to allow him into her fully, to allow him access to her body, as Kanzaki Reito had once allowed.

The Obsidian Lord had only let up when the End of the World himself had appeared, finally allowing Chikane to pass out from the assault, and know oblivion.

_She is stubborn!_ Projected the Obsidian Lord directly into the End of the World's mind, communicating without needing words to do so. _Why will she not listen to me?!_

He ignored the broken god as he grabbed his daughter's cellphone, and flipped it open to send a message to Kuga Natsuki.

_Ohtori!_ Raged the Obsidian Lord.

_Who'd listen to someone as obviously unhinged as you? _The End of the World quipped back, feeling his own patience ending, even as he snapped the phone shut and put it back down on his daughter'd desk.

_Get it through what remains of your mind, Obsidian. She cannot be forced nor needs she be. She is the new incarnation of despair, the new Orochi. She will come around herself – it is her nature to. If you continue to try to force yourself on her the way that you have been, then our partnership will end and I will grind you to powder under my heel myself. Do I make myself clear?_

_You haven't the power to! _The Obsidian roared, causing Chikane's brow to knit in pain again.

_Are you so sure of that? _

The Obsidian Lord considered his words, and glowered balefully.

After a moment, the End of the World could feel the cracked god of ambition snarl and step down, seething, but quiet, and dormant.

_... If she tries to reach out to the Hime again, I will **not** be so merciful._

The End of the World sighed.

He looked at the clock. There was still time.

Taking a hand out of his pocket, he brushed the back of his hand almost tenderly across the sleeping girl's forehead.

"Wake up," he said softly, liquidly, letting his words slowly seep into her dreams. "Wake up. You are going to be late. Everyone is waiting for you at the benefit. They are depending on you. You don't want to let them down, do you?"

Chikane stirred.

He smiled.

She was almost there.

He lowered his lips to the tip of her ear.

"She will be there. She is waiting for you."

Chikane's brow crinkled. He could her eyes moving quickly under her eyelids.

By the time she opened them however, he was already gone.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

... okay, I'll admit it. I like fancy dresses. I really, really like fancy dresses. I will spend a ridiculous amount of time describing dresses to the point where pacing issues develop. I can't help myself, I'm sorry. -_-;;

The quote is from Francoise Sagan, and is actually "a dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you."

…I also really like Kruger's design from Mai Otome, so I think the hairclip may stay for a while...

Many thanks once again, to those of you who've left reviews! Um, I guess I really don't feel all that comfortable using the review function (or these notes) to respond too much, so um, please check your PM's (if you have them)!

The next chapter should be up next Saturday (barring massive disaster)!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Why They Don't Make Hairpieces Like That Anymore

[SHIZURU puts the hairpiece into NATSUKI's hair carefully.]

SHIZURU: This was my grandmother's. She was headmistress at an all girl's school back in Kyoto called Garderobe Academy. They don't make hair pieces like this anymore.

NATSUKI: How come they don't make hair pieces like this anymore? It's pretty.

SHIZURU: I'm not sure, really. I think it's pretty too.

[FLICKS the hairpiece and the top of it suddenly extends upwards with a 'shiiink!' sound like a switch knife. Unfortunately, SHIZURU was a little to close the thing, as she was trying to find the switch. The pointy end of the hairpiece stabs SHIZURU right in the eye.]

SHIZURU: AAAH!

NATSUKI: AAAH!

SHIZURU: AAAH!

[Cue AMBULANCE.]

* * *

OMAKE II: Once more, A Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[MIKOTO's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

MIKOTO: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over... hey! [Sees CHIKANE hiccuping with really, really red eyes as she tries to console herself by licking at an ice cream cone.] No fair getting ice cream by yourself, Hime! I want ice cream too! Where did you get it?

CHIKANE: [Sniffles] The gala's finally starting. They've got a pretty decent spread.

MIKOTO: Woohoo! Ice cream! [Tosses the script over her shoulder and runs off.]

CHIKANE: ... [Hesitantly picks up the script] ... Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 11 – 'Gala Revelations' [Continues to sniffle as she licks at her ice cream].

JURI: [Eyes are bloodshot as she stumbles onto the scene absolutely wasted, holding onto an open bottle of wine], oh, *hick* grow up, Himemiya! Shtop makin' it sheem like YOU'RE the only one getting' the short end of the sshtick!

CHIKANE: [Looks at JURI's wine bottle. Looks at her ice cream. Looks at JURI's wine bottle. Tosses the ice cream over her shoulder and starts chugging the wine.]


	12. Chp 11 - Gala Revelations

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 11 (Gala Revelations)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

February 9, 2013 – February 23, 2013

Word Count: 9,200

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

**WARNING:** There's, um, a part of a scene in here that miiiight skirt towards an M rating in some folks' minds. Just wanted to give a heads up.

* * *

Himeko stared at the color pencil portrait of the smiling, brown haired boy in the junior high uniform and felt her heart ache. It was very obvious to her that the artist was absolutely head over heels in love with the person in the portrait. She could feel it from the work – anyone could.

When she had first walked into the banquet room, holding hands with Juri, Himeko could not help but feel properly impressed. Ototachibana Acadamy, where she'd gone to school in Mahoroba, was a fine, fancy school by any standard, but Fuuka Acadamy had been done up to the nines in preparation for the Kazahana Scholarship Benefit Gala. The banquet tables were all decorated with the finest of pale gold linens and accenting white table runners, while all the chairs had beautiful floral patterned covers and real lilies, infusing the large, high ceiling room with a pleasant, fragrant, but not overpowering smell. Each table had been decorated with a different centre piece, made by a different student, and ranged from the adorably awkward paper mache elementary student pieces, to sophisticated pottery sculptures from the seniors in the 12th grade, some of whom, if Himeko was any judge, had a promising career in the arts awaiting them.

Himeko had not quite recovered from her shock yesterday at the intersection. When she had finally met up with Juri, her girlfriend had taken one look at her and asked her what was wrong.

Himeko had not been able to answer her, but a cup of warm tea later, and at least she had been able to stop shivering. Terrible as she was at lying, she was somewhat glad that she just hadn't been able to articulate the gamut of emotions running through her at all, and eventually, Juri had let her be.

She then spent the last day cooped up in Juri's (theirs? She had been there six weeks now – not the longest stretch they'd lived together, but one of the longer ones) apartment, sitting on the couch and staring, unseeing, out the window, with her legs pulled up to her chest. She had taken her old photo album out, though she had not been able to bring herself to open it.

Her body may have been in Fuuka, but her mind had been thousands of miles away.

She was very glad that the Kazahana Scholarship Benefit Gala was tonight; hopefully, it would distract her enough to get out of her funk.

There were white banners streaming from the ceiling, backlit by pastel blue and purple lights, and a couple large throws with Fuuka's school crest on them had been hung from the walls, interspersed between more student works of art.

It was one of these works of art that Himeko was looking at right now.

As Himeko continued to feel her heart ache at the picture, she felt Juri squeeze her hand.

"What's wrong?" Her lover asked, that crinkle in her brow again.

The tawny haired photographer finally pulled her attention away from the portrait on the wall. "It's nothing, Juri-chan. Sorry. I was just, um, really impressed by the quality of that drawing. It's really good. Did a student really draw that?"

"It looks like it," Juri replied, looking at the name attached to the frame. "Tokiha Takumi, by Okuzaki Akira, Middle School, 3rd year. Ah. Tokiha-kun is one of the Kazahana Scholarship students from last year. I believe his sister is going to speak tonight." Juri smiled faintly. "The Tokiha siblings are a prime example of scholarship money well spent, I think."

"Tokiha?" Himeko echoed, eyebrows raised.

Juri nodded. "Yes." She paused, looking at Himeko inquisitively. "Is something...?"

Himeko forced her on smile onto her face. "No. It's nothing. My mother's maiden name was Tokiha, that's all." She had heard Juri talk about the Kazahana Scholarship before. It was a pity that whomever had been managing that endowment fund had done such a poor job of it that they had to solicit further donations in order to keep the thing afloat. "Do you think the Benefit Gala will be successful?" She asked Juri, eager to turn the conversation other topics besides her feelings.

Her lover nodded. "I do. I think most of the tickets sold, so they should be able to cover the cost of the event in spades, and have enough left over to put into the fund. Quite a few of Fuuka's alumni are well to do." Juri winked. "And there are some white knights who aren't necessarily alumni but invested in the well being of the school too."

The smile on Himeko's face became sincere.

The Benefit Gala was a very interesting affair, and Himeko regretted not having her camera with her. It was a black tie event, so all of Fuuka's alumni were dressed in finery, and seated at tables of ten. Each table also had two current Fuuka Students, some of them recipients of the Kazahana Scholarship, and the students were in their school uniforms to identify them.

Squeezing her hand, Juri took Himeko away from the portrait and introduced her to some of the other faculty members, as well as the other members of Fuuka's Board of Directors. She also talked to a few of the current university students (also dressed in finery, as they were alumni of Fuuka's primary and secondary schooling) too, though not very many of the current middle or high school students. Having found fencing instructors over the summer, Juri had cut back on her own direct contact with the younger students, and now most of her time was spent with university students.

Himeko decided she really liked Sugiura Midori-sensei, one of the high school history teachers, and was surprised to learn that they had a common acquaintance in Morimoto Yukihito.

"Oh, you're from Mahoroba too, Kurusugawa-san?" Midori's eyes lit up with interest. "Tell me, are you very familiar with any of the local folklore? Anything about the legend of Ame no Murakumo?"

"I can't say that I am," Himeko admitted, laughing weakly. "I wasn't a very good student, I'm afraid, although, I seem to recall that that is the patron deity of our largest shrine, I think. Oogami Shrine."

"I wasn't a very good student either," Midori laughed, "though don't let mine know that! Still, I'd love to have a chat with you sometime about the town. It's fascinating, really! There's almost as much legend in that town as there is in Fuuka, and THAT'S really saying something! Is it true there's a cult that worships Yamata no Orochi?"

Himeko put up her hands weakly. "If there is, I'm afraid I really don't know anything about that."

At that moment, Juri came back to Himeko's side, even as Midori left it, having spent a few minutes looking for someone.

"I just heard. She's not feeling well, so she's not going to be here tonight," Juri said. "Damn. And I was sure that this was an event she'd be at too."

"Oh. You mean, Himemiya Chikane?" Himeko asked. It had surprised Himeko greatly when she'd found out that the daughter of Mako-chan's friend, whom Himeko was supposed to give an autographed print to, was the Student Council President of Fuuka High school, and also the same student that Juri had had her eye on all spring semester long to join the fencing club.

_What a ridiculously small world this is!_

Himeko had even brought the print she had gotten from the girl's mother, Tenjou Utena, via Mako-chan, with her tonight. It was a small print, and fit in her purse, so Himeko had brought it along when Juri had mentioned that Himemiya Chikane was likely to be at this event.

_Funny. Small as this world is, yes somehow, I seem to just keep missing her!_

Eventually, dinner began and Himeko and Juri took their seats. Several other alumni came to their table, and Himeko was a little surprised when she realized that two of the chairs at their table were empty, but not for too much longer. Part way into the dinner, the two missing attendees showed up, and Himeko realized that she recognized the two girls from when she had met them when she'd first gotten to Fuuka – Kuga Natsuki and Fujino Shizuru.

"Well, well, well," Juri laughed, when Natsuki and Shizuru sat down. "Don't you clean up prettily, Kuga-kun. But I thought the students were supposed to be in their uniforms tonight?"

Natsuki blushed. The teenager had swept her long, blue-black hair into a sophisticated up-do – slightly mussed – and was wearing a dramatic, navy gown with a trail of little crystals down one side. She had a simple silver necklace around her neck, and a bangle around one wrist. She was also wearing a silver hair piece, tucked just above her left ear, that extended up a few inches, somewhat like a stylized horn. Her cheeks were rosy, and she seemed a little out of breath from rushing to the gala. It was very obvious she was breaking hearts left, right and centre tonight. "I'm not here as a student," she replied, somewhat awkwardly. "I'm here as Shizuru's... date. She's alumni." She continued to blush.

"And I was not about to pass up on an opportunity to put Natsuki in a pretty dress." Shizuru replied with a happy smile on her own face. The former student council president's dress was a strapless bone white affair with matching bone white shorty blazer top. Suspiciously, her hair was a little mussed as well, and she also seemed a little out of breathe for some reason.

Actually, that reason was pretty obvious, even to someone as oblivious as Himeko normally was; Natsuki had a couple of rather obvious hickies around her throat, and it was pretty obvious Shizuru had put her hand on Natsuki's thigh under the table.

"You both look very beautiful tonight," Himeko said kindly, and meaning it, though she had a hard time looking at Natsuki; the student's coloring and fine bone structure reminded her quite a bit of the girl from the intersection.

Thinking of that girl made Himeko's heart lurch around a bit in her chest.

"You do too, Kurusugawa-san," Shizuru replied, nodding appreciatively at Himeko's wine red dress. She winked at Juri. "Arisugawa-sensei might need to be careful tonight."

"No more or less than you, Fujino." Juri answered, her smile showing a lot of (suddenly pointy) teeth.

Dinner continued and it was delicious as everyone chatted and dined.

Eventually, it was time for the speeches.

Soon, everyone's attention was on the girl at the podium on the stage. She was wearing Fuuka High School's uniform with the golden blazer. Her short auburn hair was neatly styled. She looked out at the audience with sparkling, purple eyes. For those who could not see the stage in the back, her image was broadcasted by a video camera up onto the large screen behind her.

Himeko was surprised to see those purples eyes. They looked very familiar to her. In fact, many things about the girl on the stage seemed familiar to her.

"H-Hello," she began, a little nervously. "My name is Tokiha Mai. I'm a 2nd year at Fuuka High School and I've been asked to tell you all a little bit about myself and my brother Takumi, and, um, I'm not very good with speeches." She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not quite sure why they've asked me to do this, when there are other Kazahana Scholarship recipients who are more eloquent than I, but, well, please bear with me." She took a deep breath.

"Last year, my brother Takumi and I were fortunate enough to receive Kazahana Scholarships to come to Fuuka. It's the scholarship that saved our lives, and I am very grateful for it. It's just my brother and I left, unfortunately. Our mother passed away several years ago, and our father followed shortly thereafter. I don't mean to stand up here and give you all an unbelievable sob story, but things were getting pretty bad for us. Our parents had a life insurance policy, but Takumi had a weak heart, so most of that was being saved for the surgery. I wasn't even planning on going to high school at all; I barely managed to pass the third year of middle school because I was holding down three part-time jobs on top of school. Luckily, we had some good social workers looking out for us, and Takumi's grades are a lot better than mine, so when we heard about the scholarship, we thought, well, what could we lose by applying? I didn't actually expect to get it, but then we got the letter in the mail and..." and here, a shy smile came onto Mai's face, "... and then everything changed for us. It's been like... like getting a second chance at life, and I am thankful for this every single day."

The girl took another deep breath, and appeared to look for someone out in the audience. Suddenly, an excited girl's voice broke through the silence with an enthusiastic and echoing, "Maaai! We love you!" before her voice was cut off with a hiss of, "Mikoto! Shhhh!"

The camera panned over in the crowd to whoever had spoken, and everyone could see a small, black haired girl in Fuuka's school uniform being wrestled back into her seat by an embarrassed young man with two-toned brown and yellow hair.

The audience chuckled at this display of affection, and the girl on the stage laughed weakly, turning a little pink in the cheeks at the encouragement, though she was smiling and her eyes twinkled in the direction of the shouting.

Mai continued. "Now, I'm sure you've all heard of the... stranger things that happened last year, and I gotta admit, when buildings started getting smashed apart, I wasn't sure if it really was such a great idea to move to Fuuka, but when it's all said and done, I wouldn't change that for the world. We have met life changing teachers here," the camera panned over to Sugiura Midori-sensei, " best friends for life," the camera panned over to Himeko's own table, to highlight Kuga Natsuki and Fujino Shizuru sitting across from them, and smiling, "and even our most important people." And now the camera followed her infinitely fond gaze back to her own table where the black haired girl and the two-tone haired boy were grinning back at her. "Takumi's recently had his final surgery, and he's doing great now. We've both been given a chance at new futures here, brighter futures, and it would not have been possible without the Kazahana Scholarship. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you." And with that, Mai stepped away from the podium, and gave a deep bow.

The audience clapped enthusiastically for her, with some tables, filled mostly with her friends, giving her a standing ovation.

Himeko couldn't help but smile grandly, her heart full, and warm, as she applauded the heartfelt speech made. She didn't know who Tokiha Mai was referring to, when she had said that other scholarship recipients were more eloquent than she was; Himeko thought the redhead had done a splendid job indeed, and had likely secured better futures for many more Kazahana Scholarship recipients to come.

* * *

After Mai's speech, there were a couple more, and then the dancing began. Several other professors and administrators came up to chat with Juri, so Himeko excused herself to step outside into the garden. She had heard that Fuuka had an impressive rose garden, and if there was one thing Himeko could not resist, it was a good rose garden.

Said garden was immaculately well cared for, lined with very large hedges dotted with multicolored roses, and it took Himeko a little while to realize that it was actually a bit of a rose maze. She couldn't help but feel the ache of nostalgia as she walked through it, reminded of her own secret rose garden at Ototachibana Academy, when she was still a student. Back then, no one had known about the little gap in the rose bushes were a small student chasing a puppy could push through and find herself a safe little sanctuary. Himeko had spent many a lunch period in there, by herself. Sometimes she wished she'd brought someone into the garden with her, but at the time, that had felt distinctly sacrilegious.

The night air was warm, and nice, the full humidity of summer now passed.

As Himeko rounded a corner, her eyes went wide as she found herself in the middle of the maze, where a gazebo with a water fountain was.

Sitting under the gazebo, on the edge of the water fountain, was the girl from the crosswalk.

Himeko froze.

The moonlight was playing lovingly with the girl's long blue-black hair, causing it to shimmer. Her eyes were down cast as she was looking solemnly at her own reflection in the water in the fountain, as though she was studying her own image for traces of imperfection. From this angle and distance, Himeko could not quite see her eyes. She was dressed in Fuuka High's school uniform, but the bone-white color of the jacket told Himeko that this girl had to be the school's student council president, which meant she could only be one person.

Himemiya Chikane.

Himeko's heart clenched, unbearably so, and she suddenly felt dizzy.

_... this girl is...! This girl is...!_

And then the girl in question, Himemiya Chikane, noticed Himeko's presence, and looked over at her, and all semblance of coherent thought fled from Himeko's mind.

Stunned, Himeko realized that the girl's eyes were different from what she remembered at the intersection. Rather than being alien and malevolent and inhuman and yellow, they were now a murky, muted green, and they were wide with surprise, and filled with that same heart breaking recognition as the last time.

They stared at each other.

Something in the back of Himeko's mind told her to run again, but this time, _this time,_ in the rose garden that reminded her so much of run-away shiba-inu puppies, Himeko was able to squash down that instinct.

She swallowed nervously, and offered the girl a shy smile.

The smile was returned, equally shyly.

"That blazer... you must be Chikane… I mean, Himemiya-san, right? Fuuka's student council president?" Himeko fixed her flub a little belatedly. Although the girl was a child half her age, and it would have been perfectly within Himeko's social standing to address her junior informally, somehow, she didn't know if that was… right.

Even if _'Chikane-chan'_ DID taste as natural on her tongue as spring water did.

"You can call me Chikane, if you'd like, Kurusugawa-san," the girl replied, her smile growing a little.

Now Himeko's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "How do you know my... oh!" And then it clicked in her head. This girl knew her from her work!

_That's right; she's the daughter of one of Mako-chan's friends..._

Somehow, despite being reminded of it, the generational difference still didn't quite seem to make any sense in Himeko's mind and she couldn't help but feel suddenly pleased and flattered. "Actually, I would like that very much. Thank you, Chikane-chan." She laughed. "Please, feel free to call me Himeko as well." She played with her hair self consciously. "I'm not sure why, but, somehow, that just feels right, doesn't it?"

The girl's eyes widened some more and she looked like she couldn't believe this was happening. "If that is alright," she said slowly, as though she were afraid the offer would be rescinded.

"... Himeko..."

The way the girl tasted her name, so delicately, so carefully, as though it would melt away to nothing on her tongue, sent tremors of... something... (provocation? excitement? yearning?) down Himeko's back, and she couldn't help but wonder why she felt so... so overwhelmed with all sorts of every possible emotion.

_What is wrong with me? _ _Why is my heart pounding like this?_

But she couldn't rightly ask the child in front of her that question, so instead, she forced a laugh, and said, more than a little awkwardly, "am I being a little strange? Sorry. I just feel like we've met before."

The girl's brow crinkled a little. "We have met before." She finally confirmed.

"Oh." And suddenly, Himeko felt uncertain. "Do you mean yesterday, at the intersection?"

Chikane's face seemed to want to say 'no', but the word that ultimately came out of her mouth was a very reluctant, "... yes."

And now Himeko's own brow crinkled. She rubbed the back of her head. Her heart started to ache again. "About that. I'm... I'm really sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Chikane smiled. "That's alright. It was my eyes." She said with a rueful laugh. "That's been happening quite frequently to me of late." She could see the question on Himeko's face and she explained, "oh, I'm wearing some color contacts right now. That seems to help."

"Oh." Himeko's brow crinkled. "Do you mean your eyes aren't normally, um, like that?" Her heart skipped a few beats. "Did something happen recently?"

Chikane suddenly looked pained, and looked away.

The silence between them became awkward, and Himeko wanted to kick herself.

But then, Chikane looked back at her, and gave her a weak smile, and Himeko felt her heart skip around some more. They spoke at the same time.

"May I sit with you?"

"Do you want to sit down?"

And there was silence again, before they both chuckled and Himeko blushed before going to sit down at the fountain under the gazebo beside the student council president.

Their hands accidentally brushed as Himeko sat down, and she couldn't help but jump at the contact, almost tipping herself into the fountain in her surprise. "Oh!"

The girl quickly reached out and steadied her before she could fall in, and Himeko clung instinctively to her.

All thoughts flew from Himeko's mind as she froze again, staring up at the girl who was looking back at her with equally wide eyes.

Snippets of memories or possibly dreams flashed through Himeko's mind's eye in rapid succession.

_Chikane wears Ototachibana's burgundy uniform. Every other student coming to school bids her good morning, and she says the same to them, politely, but it isn't until her eyes meet Himeko's own does the smile on the face of the highest born girl of Mahoroba finally reach her eyes._

_Chikane laughs fondly with her. Himeko blushes happily as she turns the manga she is reading around and shows Chikane the spread she finds so beautiful that it has moved her to tears. Chikane looks at the image, and can't help but crinkle her eyes a little, as she nods and says, yes, the story of the unrequited lovers move her as well._

_Chikane catches her as she falls. Had someone pushed her? Had she simply tripped? She doesn't know, and that hardly matters as she is about to tumble very, very hard down a very, very long flight of stairs, until strong hands reach out and grab one of her arms, pulling her up and holding her tightly and whispering softly, that everything would be alright. _

Himeko suddenly felt very, very dizzy and short of breath. She started to shake.

_What... what was that?_ Himeko thought, desperately. _How can I be dreaming, when I am awake? How can I remember something that couldn't possibly have happened?_

The girl continued to stare at her, eyes wide with wonderment, even as she held onto her. Himeko was dimly aware of how warm she was, and that temperature seemed to be rising, as the girl swallowed, and then, slowly, reluctantly, with a bright blush across her cheeks, looked away.

"..."

Himeko blinked. Hastily, she removed herself from the girl's arms, massively sweatdropping.

_W-what is WRONG with me?!_ Himeko cried internally, turning away from the girl and holding onto the sides of her head while her eyes shrank into tiny black blots on her face and a whole family of sweat drops did the jig on top of her head.

And then she heard the girl beside her laugh, and it was such a familiar laugh that Himeko's heart threatened to break, even as she looked back at the other girl.

Chikane smiled weakly, fondly, at her. "You're still as klutzy as ever, aren't you?" She finally said. "It's good to know that some things never change."

Himeko stared at the girl in wonderment. "Why do you say that," she asked in a very tiny voice, "like you've known me forever?"

But even as she asked this question, somewhere in the deepest corners of her heart, Himeko already knew the answer:

It was because, obviously, she _did_.

Chikane didn't actually answer her verbally.

The heartbreak on her face did it for her.

Dimly, idly, Himeko realized that they'd both been silent for a while, simply looking at each other, and it was very obvious to her that the look of longing in the girl's eyes were reflected in her own.

_Where do I know you from? _Himeko wanted to ask, so much, and yet found the words lodged in her throat. _Why do I feel like... like this? Why does it feel like... like I'm finally meeting you?_

With a very strange, almost out of body sense of detachment, Himeko found herself reaching out, compelled by something inside her and maybe by something ageless and formless and fundamental to the universe all around her, to put a hand on the side of Chikane's face. And as she did so, she could see the girl's eyes widen in surprise, and then, suddenly, somehow, shift.

Even as Himeko watched, mesmerized, the crack in the girl's right iris faded into nothingness, and the almond, slightly reptilian shape of her left pupil shrank and widen in the middle to become a normal, human, spherical pupil.

And before she knew it, Himeko was gazing deeply into HER eyes, those maddeningly, maddeningly familiar eyes, slightly greener than what she remembered (because of the contacts), but most _definitely_, without a shred of _doubt_, the eyes she had been searching for all her life, the eyes that had always haunted her dreams, even as she slept in the arms of another.

_Chikane pulls away from her, shaking her head, refusing to hear her. 'You can't love me', she says, 'you can't. I've hurt you and done such, such horrible things. No, I killed you. I killed you! A person like me shouldn't love you, shouldn't be loved by you! I shouldn't be forgiven. I... I'm-!' She continues to say these things, to insist on these things, until Himeko silences her with a kiss. _

_Chikane fakes a smile for the camera, their last together. Himeko looks shyly up at her, and then pulls her arm into a tight snuggle. Chikane is surprised, so surprised, and so very, very happy._

_Chikane holds onto her hand, as tightly as she can, even as the winds of destiny pick her up like she is but a leaf and pulls her away. 'Look for me!' She cries, screaming her name in anguish, 'Himeko! Find me!' _

That ache that had been dully throbbing in her chest upon seeing the girl for the first time intensified a hundred fold, and Himeko thought she might die from it.

"… how is this possible?" Himeko breathed, in wonder, even as she continued to gaze into those eyes, and could see the awe in her own eyes reflected in those pools.

Chikane visibly swallowed again, and closed her eyes, but when she opened them, they were still the ones Himeko had been searching for so long and hard, across the world over a decade for, and Himeko realized that the girl was feeling exactly the same way she was at that moment.

And then Chikane leaned forward, and that tiny, tiny piece of Himeko's higher mental faculties that was screaming in alarm all this time in the back of her head, trying to force some sense into her, was abruptly silenced.

_What are you doing? _It had wanted to ask, though it was already obvious to both of them what was going to happen.

The real question was whether she was going to do anything to _stop_ it.

And as Chikane's face came closer to hers, and she closed her eyes, and pressed her lips against Himeko's own, the older woman realized the answer was: _not at all_.

After a stunned moment, Himeko closed her eyes too, and returned the kiss, feeling her heart soar in triumph, straight to the moon.

She didn't know how long she stayed there.

She didn't even know what she had done until she pulled away.

Her hands were cupped around the younger girl's face, even as the girl's arms were circled around her own waist and they rested their foreheads against one another's. Himeko thought she could feel a shudder go through Chikane's body.

_Stop!_ The back of her brain tried to form words of resistance, of reason, of logic. _What are you doing? What in the world do you think you're doing?! You're with someone already, and, OH MY GOD how old is-_

And then they were kissing again, and it was magic and fireworks and destiny, and it was hungry passion and pent up desire that defied the ages and all 800 million gods, and it was everything Himeko had always thought it would be and Himeko's brain, and all forms of higher reasoning, just could not stop her heart, and her soul, and her body, from responding back, completely drowned and destroyed by lifetimes of yearning for this triumphant reunion and-

"... oh my god..."

- and then something terrible happened.

"What are you _doing_?"

The words were harsh and blunt and spoken in the most horrified and shocked tones Himeko had ever heard.

Jumping back as though she was burned, Himeko whipped her head up and could see a woman with flame colored hair and blue-green eyes wearing a dark suit staring at her with devastation and revulsion and pain clear in her eyes, and all over her features.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl and Himeko stared back at the woman who was looking at her with such flabbergasted disbelief. Blue-green eyes (but not quite the right blue-green) stared uncomprehendingly back into Himeko's own, before flicking away to look at the girl in her arms, and then flicking back to Himeko's again.

Slowly, the woman's face began to turn very, very red, as she became very, very angry.

It wasn't until the woman closed those eyes and wordlessly turned on her heel to stalk away, did it finally click in Himeko's head who that woman was, and why she looked so destroyed.

Himeko's heart felt like it was in free fall.

_...ju...ri... ?_

Himeko's mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out.

_... Juri...? _

Himeko's eyes widened.

_... Juri-chan!_

And then her heart hit her stomach and the world sped up again.

_Oh. My. God. JURI-CHAN!_

"Wait, JURI-CHAN!"

_Oh no, oh no oh no oh no!_

Hastily getting up off the fountain, Himeko tried to run after her girlfriend, her lover, her _partner_, but found herself stopped by a grip so strong and tight on her wrist that it _hurt_. She gave a cry of pain as she was abruptly stopped.

Staring at her wrist first and then looking up at the one who held it so fiercely, she was horrified to see that Chikane's eyes no longer looked normal, _at all_. Desperately, she tried to wrench her grasp free. "Let GO!" She cried. "Please, let me go!"

Chikane looked confused for a moment, like she didn't comprehend at all the words coming out of Himeko's mouth, like she couldn't quite figure out why they weren't still kissing, and it wasn't until Himeko gave a second cry of pain at that impossibly strong, inhuman hold, did something finally seem to click on Chikane's face.

With an expression of horror and disbelief, she hastily let go.

The suddenness of that release prompted Himeko to fall over with an _'oof!'_

Scrambling to pick herself up, waving away the girl's attempt to help her, she gave Chikane a look that was part-apologetic but mostly-terrified, before bolting away, leaving the girl standing in the garden alone, a horrified expression on her face as well.

Chikane stared after Himeko.

A few moments later, she ran after her.

* * *

After dinner, with a plate of dessert consisting of chocolate covered fruit in front of her, Natsuki found herself sitting at her table by herself, as all the others had left to do some dancing, and Shizuru had been reluctantly pulled away to do some important networking and hobnobbing (though she had promised she'd be back soon). Natsuki didn't mind being by herself, of course.

It wasn't exactly like she was all there herself either, as evidenced by the goofy grin on her face.

"Na-Tsu-Ki!" Hearing her name sung out playfully, Natsuki looked up and could see Mai and Tate standing behind her, holding hands, and grinning happily at her. Mikoto hung off of Mai's other arm.

Natsuki smiled. "Good speech, Mai. You didn't even make a complete fool of yourself!"

"I'm glad you caught it," Mai laughed. "I saw you and Shizuru-san coming in late. What held you up?"

Natsuki colored and looked away.

Mai raised an eyebrow. "O-ho?" She gave Tate a look.

Tate sighed. "Hey, Mikoto, let's go get you some ice cream, okay?"

The wild child's eyes lit up and she scampered off with Tate in tow.

Mai planted herself down in the chair beside Natsuki excitedly. "I _knew _it!" She all but crowed. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Tell me _everything_! Oh my god, what was it like? What happened?"

Natsuki's eyebrow twitched. "What?" She bluffed, huffing. "I don't know what you're talking about, and I'm not telling you anything."

Mai giggled. "Oh, come on, don't be like that, Natsuki! I told you about mine! You're not being fair. How was it? What was it like? Was it Shizuru-san's first time too?"

Natsuki almost threw her hands up in the air. "God! You've been hanging around Harada and Senoh way too much! How could you possibly know that we... that we..." And here Natsuki trailed off, slapping a hand to her face as she realized she'd just confirmed to the redhead everything that she'd wanted to know.

Mai couldn't help but laugh. "It's the straps on the back of your dress, Natsuki. You totally missed a loop and that's not something Shizuru would have missed unless she was pretty distracted too. That and there's nail scratches all down your back too. And, of course, the hickies on your neck."

"WHAT?!" Horrified, Natsuki tried to twist around, and almost fell out of her chair from her hastiness. She full body blushed.

"Shhh! Don't bring attention to it!" Mai tried to stifle her laughter, even as she rubbed the tears of laughter from the corner of her eyes.

Natsuki was mortified. "Mai, give me your jacket!" She hissed.

"Not until you give me the details!"

Natsuki hung her head. "God, why do you even care so much?"

"Because we're friends," Mai laughed. "And friends care about each other!"

"Some friend you are!" Natsuki cried, still horrified.

It was then that she felt a jacket being plopped onto her shoulders. Looking at the bone white shorty-jacket now on her shoulders, Natsuki and Mai then both looked up and could see that Shizuru had returned and put her jacket overtop of Natsuki's shoulders. Her ruby eyes twinkled endlessly with fondness.

The butterflies that had taken up permanent residence in Natsuki's tummy all decided to flap their wings at the same time. She smiled up at Shizuru and tugged the jacket a little more tightly around her shoulders. "Shizuru."

"Ara, Mai-san, I'm fairly certain that my Natsuki is not the type who would kiss and tell," Shizuru smiled teasingly, sitting down in the chair beside her girlfriend and helping herself to a peice of chocolate covered fruit. "So please stop trying to corrupt her."

But Mai wasn't backing down. The redhead smiled. "She might not be, but I think you might be, Shizuru-san," she said with a laugh, even as she grinned at Natsuki, lilac eyes twinkling.

_Huh._ Natsuki thought idly. _Kurusugawa Himeko's got really similar eyes to Mai..._

"Oh? And what makes you say this?" Shizuru asked, raising a delicate, tawny colored eyebrow.

"Well, why did you wait until after parading Natsuki around all night so that everyone could see her - and her back - before offering your jacket to her?" Mai asked, grinning smugly.

Natsuki blinked, and whipped her head over to stare in flabbergast at Shizuru, who's eyes suddenly seemed to be twinkling more with mischief than fondness as she popped another piece of fruit into her mouth.

* * *

_You shouldn't be here. _

_You __**know**__ you shouldn't be here._

_You know that __**absolutely **__**no **__**good**__ can come from you being here._

_And yet, here you are, your lips still burning from Himeko's kiss and your arms still smoldering with the heat of her body, and your heart has firmly taken over all of your reason for you know she is thinking about you too, damn the world and everyone else in it._

_The top story of the residential tower at Fuuka University is all dark. No one is home, or if they are, they are asleep. You wait patiently for one of the lights to flicker on, as you know that unit's occupants are on their way up the elevators. Eventually, the light flickers on. _

_From this angle, on the ground, you cannot hope to see what is happening up there, and you desperately, desperately wish to._

_At your subconscious command, one of your servants appear, rising up out of the ground at your feet, impossibly silent for his monstrous size, and invisible to human eyes, for that is your unspoken desire. You are on his shoulder, and as he rises up, so do you, until you are level with the occupants of the lone unit in the residential tower with the lights still on. You do not grasp the significance of his appearing at your bidding; your heart beats, your mind thinks, your lungs breath for only one reason right now. _

_Himeko._

_She does not see you; no one does._

_The window of the apartment unit is a large one, and takes up almost the entire wall. It is a sophisticated, nice apartment. In the foreground is the living room, with stylish leather chairs and a coffee table. In the background is the kitchen, lined with tall, mahogany cabinets and separated from the living room by a granite topped island._

_Himeko walks into the unit first, silently. She stops in the middle of the living room. She is beautiful, in her lovely, wine red evening gown (you hadn't had a chance to compliment her on it earlier) but her eyes are puffy and swollen. _

_Behind her, Juri closes the front door with shaking hands. She takes her blazer off and puts it in the closet unsteadily. Walking into the kitchen, she takes two wine glasses out of the cupboard and pulls a bottle out of the wine rack. She fills each goblet up a third of the way, but they stay on the counter, further untouched. She leans her hip against the counter, her arms limp at her sides, dead. Her head is bowed so her bangs obscure her eyes. She faces Himeko but Himeko does not face her._

_You cannot hear what the two women in the apartment unit are saying to each other. You can see them, the tenseness in their bodies, even the movement of their lips, but you do not have words._

_Not that you need them to appreciate what is happening._

_Juri says something to Himeko._

_Himeko does not respond._

_They do not move, for a long time._

_Juri says something else to Himeko._

_Himeko still does not respond._

_Juri is shouting now. She's raised her head and her eyes are wet but ablaze, with fury, with humiliation, and she slams the counter so hard that the wine goblets jump and the liquid inside sloshes. She keeps shouting, her lips flapping open and shut so fiercely it is obvious that her words are being spat out and that they are not kind._

_Himeko's face falls apart and she crumples to the floor. She holds herself tightly, trembling, trembling so much. Her bangs obscure her eyes but do not stop the tears from falling freely from them. _

_Your heart breaks as you see this but you are not the one to comfort her at the moment._

_The sorrow and regret on Juri's face is acute and powerful. Hastily, she moves towards Himeko and falls to the ground behind her, wrapping her arms around her and crushing her tightly to her chest. _

_Himeko is openly weeping now. Her arms are not around Juri's body, she's still holding onto herself, but she's buried her face into the crook of Juri's neck, and Juri holds Himeko tightly in place against her. _

_Himeko doesn't stop shaking, doesn't stop crying._

_Juri tilts her head down, and pushes her face urgently against Himeko's, tilting the smaller woman's head upwards. And then she kisses her. Himeko tries to turn away, but Juri will not let her go, and eventually, Himeko responds to Juri's mouth, though she is mostly still sobbing. _

_They continue to kiss, and your heart continues to break as you watch them, and you wish that either you could turn away or they would just stop, but you cannot and your servant does not move either, which means that on some level, you don't really want to leave. _

_So the only ones who can do anything are them, but when they do stop, it is only so that Juri can stand up, scoop Himeko into a bridal carry and move the both of them into the bedroom._

_Your eyes widen first with surprise, and then with horror, when you realize that the bedroom also has wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows, and despite that room being enshroud with darkness, and despite the Venetian blinds being turned mostly closed, _

_You._

_ Can. _

_Still._

_ See. _

_Them._

_Juri puts Himeko down on the edge of the bed but her mouth is still hungrily kissing Himeko's, and Himeko is responding back now, holding Juri's face to her own, both hands entangled in fine flame-colored curls. Juri pulls the straps of Himeko's dress off of her shoulders, and they slip off easily enough to Himeko's waist, leaving Himeko topless; she isn't wearing anything underneath. A further pull and a tug, and the dress is down past Himeko's bottom, and then her knees, and then her ankles. Juri throws the dress to the far corner of the room without looking._

_Himeko's fingers are fumbling with Juri's buttons, and eventually, she gives up and just tries to rip the dress shirt off, but doesn't quite have the strength for it; Juri helps her. Then off go the pants and any underwear and soon they are both bare, and Himeko pulls Juri down onto sitting on the edge of the bed, and then crawls onto Juri's lap to straddle her thighs._

_Their mouths are still frenzied, still hungry, but Juri has moved her arms back to support both their weight, as Himeko is pushing herself fully up against Juri, her fingers still buried in the mass of curled orange red hair as their bodies grind together._

_When Himeko tilts her head up, exposing her neck, her mouth is slightly agape and her eyes are glazed and Juri leans forward to sample the perspiration on Himeko's skin, even as Himeko pulls the other woman's head against her breasts. _

_And then Himeko cries out as she spends and you can't do this anymore. _

_Take no Yamikazuchi disappears, taking you with him, and you have no idea where you could be heading, not that it really matters anymore to you anyway. _

_You have no idea how much time passes. _

_The room you appear in is dark, and there are no windows to the outside. Despite this, you have no problem recognizing where you are. Everything is clear to you anyway, darkness no longer a detriment to your vision. You are in the music room, where you have often spent much of your time._

_You are seated at the grand piano. _

_Funny, you think. Take no Yamikazuchi must really be your loyal servant if he knows that music is how you've come to comfort yourself, even though, of the eight, he was not the one originally meant for you._

_With trembling fingers, you uncover the piano keys, and stare at the black and white. _

_You have to get it out. _

_The roiling, creeping, crawling madness in the back of your mind, in the bottom of your heart, in the darkest recesses of your soul._

_You have to get it out._

_You start to play. _

_Music fills the room, and echoes loudly in your ears, and you play, and you play, and you realize, with horror, that you do not feel better. The music does not sound entirely right. The music does not sound entirely like your own, or at least, not the requiems you have composed for the last 15 years. Certainly, the melancholy is still there, but it is tinged with... something disagreeable. _

_And you wonder where you've heard this piece before and then realize with horror that it sounds suspiciously similar to the piece that you played, THAT night, in another life, in a time that was overwritten, and so never did happen (and yet, of course, it still did), when you took Himeko against her will and tried to make her hate you. _

_Your fingers leap off the keys as though they were hot coals._

_And then you see them in your mind's eye at the same time that you see yourself._

_Lips crushing together._

_...(Terrified screaming)_

_Fingers tangled in long fine locks. _

_...(I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I'm sorry!)_

_Pulling clothing with feverish urgency from limbs and discarding it on the floor. _

_...(Please, Chikane-chan, please! I-)_

_Bodies together as one. _

_...(A vicious slap)_

_Her mouth, open with the ecstatic cry of release._

_...(Break, breaking, broken)_

_You bury your head in your hands and squeeze your eyes close to stop the tears. _

_It doesn't work. It isn't enough._

_Shivering and shaking, you raise your fists up, and slam your fists down against the piano keys, only it's not quite your fists that smash down, but Take no Yamikazuchi's, and his monstrous fists completely obliterate the instrument. With a loud, distressing, ugly sound of wood smashing and wiring snapping, the entire piano is completely smashed in and goes crashing down onto the floor, just somehow narrowly missing your feet. The force is so great that even the nearest window blows out, sending glass flying outwards._

_You crumple off of the piano bench, curl yourself into a tiny ball with your head buried in your knees, and sob tears of bitterness and anguish. On your back, the mark of Orochi, cradled by the crescent mark of the Lunar Priestess, glows a malevolent dark purple._

_You cry and you cry and you cry for a very long time. _

_You don't know how much time passes until you are calm again._

_A pair of white shoes appear at the corner of your vision._

_You don't have to look up to know the man who is half responsible for your current existence is there. _

_He crouches down beside you, and takes your chin gently in his fingers, tilting your vision up._

_His green eyes are unreadable. _

_And he asks you, _

_"Now are you willing to listen?"_

* * *

As the first of the sun's rays began to shine over the edge of the horizon, Juri stirred and rolled over, draping her arm over Himeko's body to hug her close.

Or at least, she would have, if Himeko were still there.

Eyes snapping open when her arm met the coldness of mattress rather than the warmth of a body, Juri bolted upright. "Himeko?" She asked, all drowsiness instantly banished from her system.

She was alone in the bed.

A deep sense of panic began to form in the bottom of Juri's stomach as she got up and bolted for the ensuite, and then out into the kitchen and living room, stopping only to throw on a bathrobe to cover her naked form.

Himeko was nowhere to be seen.

Juri's heart dropped into her stomach.

Hastily, she tore back into the bedroom, and flung open the closet doors.

Himeko's luggage was gone.

Juri stared at the space where the baggage used to be. Wordlessly, she got up, and shuffled, half dead, out of the bedroom.

Looking about the living room, she absently noted that Himeko's laptop and camera equipment had all gone too. That was no longer a surprise, given everything else.

What was a surprise, was the necklace, her cellphone, and the note on the countertop. With trembling hands, Juri picked the necklace up, and realized it was the intricate, platinum necklace she had given to Himeko when they'd first started dating, to replace the old one that held Himeko's all important seashell pendant.

The seashell was gone.

Juri looked at the note. There were three words on it.

Juri closed her eyes.

Suddenly, her phone began to ring. Juri contemplated just throwing the thing against the wall, but stopped when she saw Tomoyo's name noted as the caller.

Wordlessly, she answered the call and put the phone to her ear. She didn't say anything.

"... are you okay?" Tomoyo's hesitant, confused voice came over the line.

Juri couldn't really bring herself to say anything. She just swallowed down the lump in her throat, and that noise was the only indication that Tomoyo got that she was still there.

The woman continued, her voice sorrowful. "... I got a weird message from Himeko-chan. She asked me to... oh, god, Juri-chan, what happened?"

Still, Juri remained silent, until finally, she was able to spit out three words:

"Himemiya. Himemiya. Chikane."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This part was written a long time ago. And then I re-watched Utena's, "The Prince Who Runs Through the Night" -_-;;

... I'm sorry.

Truly.

That will be about as heavy as it will get.

(I hope. -_-;;)

This marks the half-way part of the fic, thematically. Similar to the original Mai Hime series, the second half of the story will be pretty plotty, but I think the ongoing story structure will require some chapters to be mostly fluffy here and there (and I think I'm still missing a hotspring episode to complete the underwear-beach-hotspring fanservice trifecta).

The next chapter will be out next Saturday (and then things will get a bit dicey with work again, but, hopefully, not too too bad).

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Dancing

[During the gala, a bunch of students and alumni are having a great time, dancing the night away. Suddenly, the music becomes dramatic, and two sudden spotlight shine down on two participants in the middle of the dance floor. It is NANAMOO and HARUKOW, on their hind legs with their front legs in flamenco dance formation, wearing full evening dress, and both biting onto long-stemmed roses in their mouths.]

NANAMOO: Moooou!

HARUKOW: [Claps her front hooves together. Eats her rose.] Mooou!

MAI: [Sweatdrops] Oh, for chrissake, even the cows get to dress up! What good is it to get a fancy dress last chapter, if I don't actually get to wear it?!

* * *

OMAKE II: And again, A Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[FUMI's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

FUMI: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over... [looks over the script] Oh dear. I believe there's going to be violence. [She looks over at CHIKANE and JURI who have both drunken themselves into depressed stupors and are on the brink of passing out on the floor.] Hmm. Well, hopefully, Chikane-san can sober up relatively quickly, or I don't think it's going to be much of a fight.

CHIKANE: [Slurring] I dunno if itz' gonna be muchuva fight nnnyway. *Hick* Author no good... mecha fight scenes... [Looks somewhat ill.] Uuuugh...

FUMI: [Sweatdrops] Uh, please don't make a mess on the floor; I'm the closest thing to a maid character trope this fic has, since Otoha-san isn't around. Anyway, please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 12 – 'Mothers and Childs'...

JURI: [Grumps] I like... original... title of... of chapter better... 'Kick Her While She's Down.' [Glares at CHIKANE] You! Staaay down. [Mutters] Down.

CHIKANE: ... [Passes out.]


	13. Chp 12 - Mothers and Childs

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 12 (Mothers & Childs)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

February 14, 2013 – March 3, 2013

Word Count: 9,600

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

*15 YEARS AGO*

The sixteen year old teen-aged mother stared at the group of 3-4 other women who were chatting together at the edge of the playground while their children played together in the playground and swallowed nervously. She looked down at her baby daughter, strapped into a homemade sling, and rubbed the baby girl's back. It was more to comfort herself than to comfort the child, though the child did not complain under the ministrations.

The girl took a deep breath. "Okay, Utena," she muttered softly to herself. "Stop being a coward. Just... just be brave. Just go out there, and introduce yourself, and everything will work out. Come on, you owe it to your baby girl to try, right?"

Said baby girl looked up at her mother with curiously intelligent eyes. While she didn't say anything, her eyes seemed to be giving her mother a bit of encouragement.

Working up some gumption, Utena walked purposefully across the park, back straight (a little too straight), eyes ahead, deftly avoiding tripping over the playing toddlers that got in her path to approached the group of women in order to make Chikane's park debut, and hopefully, to score her daughter some help with her current predicament.

"Hi!" Utena said, as cheerfully and politely as she could. "Um... nice weather, isn't it?"

The other women, ranging from 10 to 15 years her senior by the looks of them, stopped chatting and looked up at her in surprise and appraisal. A couple of them traded significant glances with each other, and Utena could feel the hairs on the back of her neck tingle unpleasantly.

Finally, one of them smiled. "Yes, it's a lovely day for playing in the park, isn't it?"

"It sure is." The pink haired girl tried to squash down the nervousness she felt inside. She looked down at her daughter for strength, and found it when her baby continued to look up at her with luminous, encouraging, blue-green eyes. "Um, my name is Tenjou Utena, and this is... " she took a deep breath, "... this is my daughter, Chikane."

A couple of eyebrows shot up, and what previously had been mere curiosity in the other women's eyes now definitely took on the more cruel edge of judgement. Utena wanted to kick herself.

_Oh great. Waaay to go, genius. You don't always have to tell the truth you know. Little white lies aren't supposed to hurt anyone..._

A couple of the women gave each other more uncomfortable glances, but luckily the one of them that had smiled before simply continued to smile, and Utena thought she could see a bit of kindness in her eyes.

Standing up, the woman came over to Utena and looked down at her baby, smiling at her. "My name is Sato Koyomi. She's adorable, Utena-san. How old is she?" Sato-san gently pushed one of her fingers into Chikane's grip, and the baby girl knew to grab onto it, and smile as winsomely as she was capable. She even gurgled, the noise sounding suspiciously like, "hello".

The woman's smile broadened, obviously charmed. "My, aren't you a smart one!" As she said this, the other women looked at each other, and then came to see what all the fuss was about.

Utena couldn't help but feel greatly relieved as her daughter turned up the charm, and had the other women wrapped around her little finger within minutes, all cooing and angling to try to play with her.

"She's six months old," Utena finally said, some of her nerves slowly being replaced with cautious hope.

"Oh, fun." Sato-san laughed. "Is she teething?"

Both mother and daughter quickly turned to look at the woman with an almost manic sort of relief in their eyes that someone understood the plight that had driven them to the park in the first place.

The woman laughed again and then sighed in sympathy. "Try a wash cloth with ice cubes. That's what worked for Taro-chan."

Utena looked down at Chikane, who looked back up at her, relief and joy clearly evident in both their eyes.

"Okay, I'll give that a try. Thank you!" Utena looked down at Chikane. "Say _thank you_, Chikane."

The women were all charmed when the baby girl turned to look at them, and bowed her head politely.

"Awww!"

"Oh my!"

"She's a smart one, isn't she?"

Sweatdrops appeared on their heads when the baby girl followed this up by saying, in decently articulated Japanese considering she was only beginning to grow teeth, "wordtz cammo' p'oppawy eckspwess my gwachichudze."

* * *

*6 YEARS AGO*

Utena stared out the window as she sat at the kotatsu, supporting her chin in one hand even as her other one twirled a red pen absently. Her legs were curled up under her. She had a bunch of papers stacked up beside her, but she hadn't been able to get herself to concentrate on her grading at all and the same paper had been in front of her for the last 20 minutes.

It was raining. It had been raining for the last several days.

It had been 10 years since she'd left Ohtori, 10 years since she'd awakened in a hospital, covered in injuries with a particularly nasty stab wound through her side. The nurses and doctors had stared at her in wide eyed disbelief that not only had she survived what looked like a horrific accident with a lawn mower, but that she somehow hadn't lost the embryo she didn't know she'd been carrying for the last four weeks either.

It had been 10 years since the real world taught her what forms princes and princesses and duels _really_ took. 10 long years, grinding out the daily necessities of providing for her and hers. 10 hard years covered in dirt and blood and filth. And yet, they had not been an entirely unpleasant 10 years either.

Far from it, actually.

Compared to the tragedies that had happened in the first 10 years of her life (losing her parents to a car crash, and then her aunt to an overseas assignment), these last 10 hadn't been nearly as desolate.

There were faint sounds coming from the kitchen, and Utena turned to look in that direction. She wasn't sure what her daughter was making, but she'd been at it for a couple hours now. A faint smile came to Utena's lips.

No, things definitely could be worse. For one thing, her daughter could have been a hellion, instead of the sweetest angel to walk this earth, although, sometimes, she did act a bit (re: waaaay) more maturely than Utena was altogether comfortable with.

She just wished she'd been able to keep her promise - to the other most important person (not) in her life.

To have tea and cookies together, 10 years later.

To shine together.

Even as she thought this, her nine year old appeared from the kitchen, wearing a dark one-piece dress with bows at the shoulders over top of a white sweat shirt, her hair tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of the way. She was carrying a tray upon which she had balanced an old tea pot, cups, and a plate of what looked like Italian style ladyfinger cookies. Their family pet was perched on her shoulder, eyeing the tray she was carrying with keen interest.

Carefully, the youngster brought the tray to the kotatsu and set it down in front of her mother.

"Where did you learn to make those?" Utena asked, impressed. She hadn't had those sorts of cookies since... since Ohtori. _10 years ago, almost, to the day. Huh._

Her daughter only smiled mysteriously at her, taking the cookies off the tray and putting them on the table. Chu Chu tried to lunge for the treats, but at Chikane's admonishing, "you know those aren't for you," the monkey mouse made a small, plaintive noise and remained on her shoulder, crestfallen but obedient.

Chikane then put the two tea cups on the table too, and served the tea. She gave one cup to her mother and left the second one on the table. Then she took the tray and left, saying, "I have some homework to do in the bedroom."

"Wait, you forgot your tea," Utena said, holding out the second cup.

Chikane didn't look back. "That's not for me." She replied as she disappeared into the bedroom and shut the door behind her.

Utena stared after her daughter, blinking.

For better or worse, most of the time, she really didn't know what was going on through that girl's head. But, especially in times like these, she had learned to just go with it (or go nuts with confusion).

Smiling a soft, sad smile, she put the tea cup back on the table and then lifted her own cup to gently clink it. "Cheers." She said softly, before taking a sip.

_Hey, Himemiya? Wherever you are, I want you to know, I'm shining. It's not quite how I thought I'd be doing it, but, I am. And I hope you are too._

* * *

*1 YEAR AGO*

"Happy Birthday!" Utena cried happily, pulling the small pop cannon to send a cloud of confetti directly into her daughter's face. Chu Chu, seated on her shoulder, blew loudly into a bright yellow extendable noise maker with pink streamers.

Chikane couldn't help but laugh as she waved the small bits of paper and glitter out of her face, even as she stepped through the front door of their small apartment. "Okaa-sama!" She admonished, smiling broadly. "You shouldn't have." Though she protested the surprise, it was obvious she was pleased by it.

In the living room, the kotatsu had already been set up, and there was a small white cake decorated with strawberries and a chocolate plaque that said 'Happy 15th, Baby Girl!' on it. The single candle on the cake was already lit. Utena took her daughter's school case from her and put it down before the two of them went to sit at the low table that Chu Chu had already hopped onto, her monkey eyes large and sparkly and full of stars and flowers as she stared at the cake with open anticipation and hunger.

"Make a wish!" Utena said with a laugh.

Chikane smiled fondly at her mother, even as she sat down and smoothed out the pleats of her sailor style uniform's skirt and then clasped her hands together in her lap. She closed her eyes and was still for a couple seconds, before she opened her eyes again, blue-green eyes sparkling with a complex mix of emotion – hope, happiness, and amusement – and the blew out the candle.

Utena clapped while Chu Chu blew out her noise maker again, before the pink haired woman handed the blue-black haired girl the knife and the now 15 year old cut two slices of cake and put them on plates. She handed one to her mother and kept the other one for herself.

She slid the rest of the cake in front of Chu Chu, who was wrapping a handkerchief around her neck, and then gave the monkey mouse a fork. The family pet didn't actually use the utensil; she simply inhaled the cake whole in one gulp. The cake was bigger than she was, and the monkey's tummy extended almost grotesquely to accommodate the bulk of the pastry. Chu Chu gave a sigh of satisfaction and then promptly rolled backwards onto her back, passed out in a food coma.

"I got you a present." Utena couldn't help but beam as her daughter nibbled at her cake. Chikane raised an eyebrow as she licked her lips to get at an errant crumble, and then reached out with a napkin to whip the sizable gob of cream that had somehow ended up at the corner of her mother's mouth.

"Okaa-sama," Chikane said again, "honestly, you really, really, shouldn't have."

Utena laughed. "Well, who else am I going to spoil if not you?"

On the table, Chu Chu began to snore, a snot bubble coming in and out of a nostril. Both mother and daughter ignored their pet.

Utena smiled. "It's in the bedroom."

Chuckling, the mother daughter pair went to the bedroom door, and Chikane opened it.

She immediately found herself staring into the cleavage of a pair of massive, massive breasts.

Chikane sweatdropped. Blinking a few times in shock with a bright blush across her cheeks, it took her a moment to realize that the breasts were (barely) held back by some lacey lingerie worn by a scantily clad fashion model striking a provocative pose.

"Surprise!" Utena laughed happily. "Do you like it? I got the right model, right? Shiratori Ichiko?"

"Um..." It only took Chikane a moment longer to realize what had happened: the poster was a 15x blown up picture of one of Himeko's prints that Chikane had managed to get her hands on. Her mother hadn't realized the print was near and dear to her heart, not because of the woman in the picture itself, but because of the woman who had shot and developed the print.

Utena's brilliant smile started to dim a little when it took her daughter a little while longer to respond than she had hoped. "You don't like it?"

"No, I do, I do," Chikane said hastily, still sweatdropping. "But, um, Okaa-sama, isn't it a bit, uh..." She struggled for a word that wouldn't hurt her mother's feelings, "... large? Where am I possibly going to hang it?"

"Well, I guess I didn't think that far ahead." Utena rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I dunno, maybe we could just hang it on the bedroom wall? If we take down the cork message board and move the calendar, it should fit."

Chikane raised an eyebrow. "... you're okay with sleeping beside this?" She pointed at the breasts. "Every night? And having it be the first thing you see in the morning?"

Now the sweatdrops moved to Utena's head. "... yeeeah, maybe I should have thought this through a little more."

Chikane stared at her mother incredulously for a moment, before she finally just shook her head, and laughed. "In any case, thank you, Okaa-sama. This was very thoughtf- um, I mean, this was very kind of you. I love it." She gave her mother a hug which Utena returned.

"... um, Okaa-sama?"

"Hmm?"

Chikane looked back at the picture, and blushed. "Just so we're clear, you do realize it's not the model I admire, right? It's the photographer?"

Utena sweatdropped. "Oh. Um. No." She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly again. "I just thought you were, you know, getting to that age..."

"... " With this admission, the sweatdrops then went back to Chikane's head.

* * *

*LAST WEEK*

Over the last several months, Himeno Fumi had let her peers on Fuuka's Board of Directors know that despite her feathery soft voice and kind, pleasant demeanor, the core under the velvet was made from tempered steel every bit as hard as her predecessor's had been - Kazahana Mashiro. She had served her master since she was younger than the 11 years Mashiro had looked, having been picked up as a starving orphan off the street and taught everything she knew under Mashiro's tutelage, so her style was very similar to Mashiro's own. It was in large part because of this strength that the academy had been pulled back from the brink of financial and operational ruin, and she was not about to let the other members on the board forget about this.

"Fuuka Academy is a school run by the students, for the students," Fumi said quietly, but firmly. "That is one of the core pillars that make up the foundation of this school's philosophy, and I will remind you all that it is this philosophy that we as Directors have been charged to uphold.

"Student morality and the punishment for the breaking of school rules have always been under the jurisdiction of the student council, the president of which as elected by the student body. Therefore, we would be overstepping our bounds in the matter of Himemiya Chikane's alleged misconduct if we were to prescribe the punishments that we are currently discussing. The matter belongs with the student council, and specifically with Sasaki Gennosuke, the Executive Director, and all _we_ can and _should_ do, is advise him in this matter."

"We aren't talking about skipping class or wearing a skirt too short!" snapped another director, Ryuunosaki Ichirou. "Himeno, the girl willfully destroyed school property - the high school music room, as well as a grand piano worth 4.5 million yen! They found her in there, after hours, a midst the wreckage and she even admitted to destroying everything! I don't have to tell you of all people that the destruction of school property was what brought Fuuka Academy to its knees last year. We simply cannot allow the consequences of such behaviour to be addressed by children – especially if the offender is the President of the student council herself. Think of the message it sends to the rest of the students!"

Fumi's eyes narrowed. She couldn't let Himemiya Chikane be expelled. It was plainly, abundantly, clearly obvious that something bad had happened to the girl on the night of the gala – worse than bad; something sinister. When she had heard that they had found Chikane by the wreckage of the piano, the dread in the pit of Fumi's stomach had been the same as the dread she had felt when they'd informed her she'd been found at the beach at the beginning of the summer. This time, however, rather than being physically hurt, what ailed the girl appeared to be internal - emotional and psychological.

Himemiya Chikane had changed over the course of the last few weeks. Kuga Natsuki had reported her worry to the rest of the Hime – that her roommate had become highly irritable, almost antisocial. Despite how open she had been initially, after the gala, she had refused to answer any more of Natsuki's questions, and had out and out started avoiding her. And though Natsuki hadn't actually told anyone about this, Fumi suspected that neither girls were sleeping in their shared room anymore (the gossip in the halls was that Chikane had stopped going back to the dorms altogether, and Natsuki had confronted her about it. They had argued quite intensely about it, with the result being Natsuki ceding the room to her younger roommate, and temporarily staying with Fujino Shizuru. This was all clearly against school policy, but Kikukawa Yukino and Fumi herself had, so far, been able to keep that under wraps).

Fumi frowned. She didn't know what had happened to Chikane, both before summer and after it, but they had to find out, and they couldn't do that if this idiotic board in front of her wanted to boot the student out of the school.

"Chikane-san will be spoken with and punished accordingly." Fumi replied tersely. "I have spoken with the other members of the student council, and their decision is to strip Chikane-san of her title and to have her replace the piano."

"But is that enough?" One of the other directors, asked, worry plain in her voice. "She is student council president, AND a Kazahana Scholarship recipient. Any misdemeanor on her part reflects poorly on the school. Should her scholarship not be stripped? Should she not be expelled?"

Fumi pursed her lips. This had been her greatest fear when the Chairman of the board had been pressured into calling this meeting. "I understand your concern. I agree with you – Chikane-san is a key representative of the school, so her behaviour must always be above reproach. When people see the white blazer, they see the leadership of Fuuka Acadamy, and it is unfortunate that this has transpired. But I ask that you not let just this one incident be the only judge of her character. Please, allow me to show you exactly the nature of the student you are asking the school to disassociate from."

The board shifted uncomfortably as Fumi called up her computer files off the school server onto the projector, went through some folders, and came across one containing several sound files. She opened one, and after a moment, beautiful strains of piano could be heard piping through the speakers in the board room.

The other board members frowned. One of them asked, "what is this, Himeno-kun?"

"As you are all aware," Fumi said delicately, "the destroyed piano was newly purchased this year, and enabled for electronic recording. As it was, it was automatically setup to record everything played on it and to spit out a sound file every day. I asked our IT folks to send me what was recorded the night the piano was destroyed, as well as for anything else unusual. What we are listening to right now is what was played that night, and we have files for what was played the last 37 times when Chikane-san accessed the music room after normal school hours, which," and here Fumi sighed, knowing she was going to take some flack for this, "I have known she'd been doing for quite some time now and had no issues with."

The board was silent as they let the chilling, haunting, pained strains of the piano continue to wash over them, looking at each other uncomfortably.

"Why are we listening to this?" Another board member asked, plainly confused and unsettled by the haunting sounds. "I mean, it's not very good, is it?"

Another member, Chiyaki Tamaki, turned to regard him with surprise. "Oda-kun, this isn't a finished piece we're hearing," he said. "I play myself, and have some experience with musical theory. What I believe we're hearing right now is straight composition, from the heart, as it were, and with all dear respect, it is _exquisite_."

Oda frowned, shutting his mouth.

Fumi let the music play for only a little longer, before shutting it off. "This, ladies and gentlemen," she said, this is the calibre of student you are saying makes a poor representative of Fuuka Acadamy."

The board was silent for a moment, and Fumi was beginning to feel more confident when Chiyaki made an unexpected comment that completely changed the direction of the discussion.

"Himeno-kun," Chiyaki said softly. "I might have agreed with you that expulsion was too harsh a punishment before hearing her play, but now, I'm not convinced that she belongs at Fuuka in the first place. She should be at a music college."

_What the hell?!_ Fumi looked at the man like he had two heads. "With all due respect, Chiyaki-dono," she finally said, "that decision _definitely_ isn't ours to make, and should have no impact whatsoever on the current discussion."

But Chiyaki had already turned to look at the last remaining board member at the table.

"What do you think, Arisugawa-kun?"

Now all attention was turned onto the newest member of the Board, who had remained curiously silent through most of the meeting, in direct contrast to the other meetings she had previously attended and very vocally, and meaningfully, contributed to.

Juri's eyes were smoldering, and it was plenty obvious to everyone else at the table that the flame haired woman had many things on her mind.

When she spoke, there was an obvious note of agitation and anger in her voice. "I regret to say that I must excuse myself in the discussion and voting of any matter related to Himemiya Chikane." She finally said, and Fumi was greatly surprised to hear this. "I have a conflict of interest with respect to her, and I do not wish to discuss the nature of it."

The flame haired woman's admission stunned the rest of her peers, who could only stare back at her.

Fumi frowned intently as the meeting threatened to be entirely derailed. "... I am afraid, Arisugawa-dono," she said, her voice apologetic, but still firm, "that as a director and instructor at this school, you are in a position of fiduciary responsibility to all of its students, and if you say that you have a conflict of interest with any one of them, then the nature of that conflict absolutely MUST be disclosed or you will be suspended from the board until further notice..."

The rest of the board murmured in agreement, all of them looking at Juri with expressions ranging from simple curiosity to downright indignation and worry.

If it was one thing they could all agree that they _really_ didn't need, it was any sort of scandal between an adult in a position of power, and a student.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Juri spat, standing up and slamming her hands on the table top. "It's not THAT, you idiots. I'm not FUCKING her! "

The obscenity slammed into the faces of everyone in the room with the force of a sledge hammer. Fumi might have thought she was stunned before, but now, staring at the woman she respected the most in this room, she realized she hadn't known the meaning of the word until now.

Juri remained standing, her eyes still ablaze, but now also tinted by regret. Closing them, she swallowed and sat down. "I apologize for the outburst. That was unprofessional." She said quietly, her jawline visibly tight. When she opened her eyes again, Fumi could see cold fury burning in those blue-green depths. "But I reiterate, I did not have any sort of inappropriate fraternization with Himemiya Chikane. At all."

Then Juri suddenly stood up again, and walked out of the room. As she left, she said, without looking over her shoulder, "I'll send a letter of resignation in the morning."

Her announcement stunned everyone, who could only look awkwardly at one another.

Finally, the chair of the meeting spoke up. "We should take the vote now," he finally said, "before this meeting is completely overrun by any more surprises."

Fumi opened her mouth to disagree, but was overruled.

Unfortunately, Juri's absence did not make a difference. Of the remaining 6 Board members, 4 of them voted to have Himemiya Chikane stripped of her scholarship for the remaining two years of high school. It was all Fumi could do to keep the girl from being expelled immediately, but, given Fuuka's high tuition rates, it was unlikely she'd be able to finish her high school education here.

Himemiya Chikane only had until the end of the fall/winter semester left at Fuuka Acadamy, and Himeno Fumi was going to have to be the one to tell her this.

* * *

*NOW*

Fumi stared at the white envelope on her mahogany desk and Juri could tell that she was trying to will it into disintegration. When that failed to work, the Director lifted her gaze to bore into Juri's own, and not for the first time, Juri was impressed by the way steel was mixing with empathy in her olive eyes.

Juri liked the other woman. She really did. It was a pity that it had to end like this.

But it wasn't the most gut-wrenching end to an association to happen to her lately. Not by far.

"Please, Arisugawa-dono. Juri-san." Fumi said, as emphatically as possible. "I beg you to reconsider. Fuuka would be a poorer place without you."

But Juri's gaze continued to be impassive. "What is there to reconsider?" She asked quietly. "The policies in place are there for a reason, and they are good. I will not discuss my circumstances. But I am not pulling my funding either. The shareholder agreements have clauses to prevent that from happening anyway, and I do expect that the fencing programs will remain in place, even if I am no longer on the Board to ensure it."

Fumi frowned. She tried again. "Juri-"

"You don't need me here, Fumi." Juri interrupted softly. "You run a good ship, and you are capable. You'll be fine. In the meanwhile, I don't think it is in the Acadamy – or my – best interest to remain on the board. As to your offer to remain on the teaching staff, I will have to give it some thought. That's the best I can offer you right now." Juri was careful to leave a hint of steel in her tone, in case the Director tried to drag this out.

The other woman picked up on it, and gave a sigh of defeat. "Can you not at least tell me what in the world happened?"

Juri didn't say anything. She suspected that the other woman already had a vague inking of what had happened in her personal life; most of the teaching staff and administration had noticed the perpetually foul mood she was in since... since _she_ had left. Most people who saw her coming towards them these days gave her a wide berth.

Fumi closed her eyes. "Very well," she finally conceded. "I look forward to your response then. Will you be leaving Fuuka Island entirely?"

Juri nodded. She couldn't bear to stay here anymore, though the thought of returning home to Tokyo held little attraction also. There would be so many more reminders of _her_ once-presence there after all.

Juri got up to leave. Walking silently over to Fumi's office door, she opened it and froze.

Standing just on the other side of the door, with her hand raised as though to knock on it, was Himemiya Chikane.

For a moment, nothing else seemed to exist except for Juri herself, and the girl, the... the _child_ who had none the less managed to steal away the best thing in her life.

Juri had to clench her fists tightly to bodily fight down the urge to strike out at the girl in front of her.

They stared at each other, the tension, the _loathing_ between the both of them almost palpable.

And then the girl blinked, and slowly schooled her expression into one of neutrality. "Good day, Arisugawa-sensei." She said in such a monotone that it was obvious she didn't think it was a good day at all. She looked over at Fumi impassively. "You wanted to see me, Director Himeno?"

Dimly, Juri became aware that Fumi was just behind her, and for a moment, she wondered if the pink haired woman had set this up to happen, to get the two of them face to face, in order to get some sort of confirmation as to what might have transpired between them, and Juri couldn't help but feel cold fury and old paranoia threaten to rise at the possibility.

"Ah, Chikane-san," Fumi said, with such obvious heaviness and heartache in her tone that Juri realized that it could not have been the Director's intent to set them up at all; her next conversation promised to be just as dispiriting as her last one, if not more so. "Thank you for coming. I'll be right with you."

Chikane nodded tersely, and then flicked her eyes back to look at Juri, and Juri was a little startled (and maybe a little scared, though she would never admit that), to see something not quite... right... inside those murky green depths (had they always that color? And had they always been so... misshapen?).

Brushing off the unusualness of the younger girl's eyes as best she could, Juri returned that glare with more. She was reminded of how much bloody self control it had taken at the meeting with the board last week to declare her conflict of interest, rather than to abuse her position of power. She was almost regretting her decision now.

Juri's eyes narrowed, as the student council president flicked her eyes away and then tried to walk silently past her into the office. It wasn't until their shoulders practically brushed against each other did she speak, her voice low and dangerous.

"Tell me." Juri said, her voice soft, so that Fumi would not overhear.

Chikane stopped and looked out of the corner of her eyes to meet Juri's cold, cold own.

"Does your mother know she raised a home-wrecker?"

Those words hit home with the full venomous impact that they were spat out with, and Juri watched with grim not-quite-satisfaction as the student's face twisted into an expression of grief before the emotion was quickly squashed down behind a not-quite-expressionless mask. Without answering, Chikane tried to move past Juri again, but Juri grabbed her forearm tightly.

"Where is Himeko?" Juri demanded in as quiet and as hard a voice as she could manage.

Chikane glared back at Juri silently and wrenched her arm free, but before she did that, for a brief moment, Juri could see the confusion clearly on the student's face, and that was enough to tell her that the girl didn't know where Himeko was either – likely hadn't even seen her since that night – and was just as surprised to learn that the woman they both wanted wasn't with either of them.

Chikane stepped quickly into Fumi's office and shut the door behind her in the flame haired woman's face.

Juri stared at the cold wooden door up against her nose, wanting very much to fling it open, to scream, and bodily attack the one who had dared to come between herself and Himeko. She clenched and un-clenched and re-clenched her fists, multiple times.

Instead, she took a deep breath, and counted slowly to ten, before shoving her hands into her pockets, and stalking away.

Juri didn't know how she felt about this turn of events. On the one hand, maybe it was a good thing that Himeko wasn't with... with the _child_, but then, where could she be? Juri's heart sank into her stomach.

In the last eight months alone, Himeko had been on three different continents. She was whimsical and courageous, comfortable with going wherever the wind took her, but the problem with having spent the last decade of her life building up the courage to go to anyplace was that now, Himeko was also able to run from anything.

She could be anywhere.

* * *

Not for the first time, Fumi wished that her Mashiro-sama was with her. She wondered how her mentor, her charge, her most important person, would have handled this situation. Surely, Mashiro-sama would have found a way to make everyone happy, to allow justice to prevail.

Unfortunately, Fumi could not. Her heart ached as she delivered the news to Chikane, a girl with so much empathy and talent, she should have been able to jump as high as she wanted to in life, to reach for its very heavens, not fall into the deepest of life's pits.

_Your scholarship is stripped – the next two years will be used to replace the property that was destroyed. You are also hereby impeached as well – you are no longer student council president. Kikukawa Yukino will be asked to step up in your place. Your mother will be contact shortly after this meeting, and we will discuss what we can do about the situation with tuition. I understand that it may be difficult to obtain financial aid, as this incident must be noted on your permanent record, but it may not be impossible._

Curiously, Himemiya Chikane barely had any reaction at all, the expression on her face remaining neutral and impassive, even as Fumi laid down the brutal decision that had been handed to her.

When Fumi finished speaking, Chikane simply gazed back at her with little reaction.

"I see." Was all she said.

Fumi frowned. Not for the first time, she wondered what was going on inside the student's head.

"Thank you for letting me know first, Director Himeno. I take this to mean that you have not yet told my mother?"

"Yes, that is correct." Fumi had agonized the last several days as to how best to tell the girl, how to break the news, or if she should wait and give her mother a chance to make it to the island, so that they could get the news together. In the end, she thought that the former student council president was the type of person who would appreciate knowing first.

"Will you allow me the favour of telling her first, before you contact her?" Chikane asked.

Again, Fumi nodded, feeling as though that was the least she could do.

"Thank you. I appreciate this, Director."

Quietly, the (now former) student council president stood up from her chair, and unbuttoned the front of her bone white blazer. Shrugging the uniform off of her shoulders, she draped it over the back of her chair.

Fumi felt an acute sense of loss as she watched the teenager in front of her do this.

_How did things ever come to this?_

Then, Chikane surprised her by undoing the buttons on the cuffs of the white collared shirt she had on under the blazer, and rolling the sleeves up to just below her elbows. She gazed at Fumi dispassionately, the expression in her eyes unreadable behind her color contacts. She spoke evenly and calmly.

"Director Himeno, you are a Hime, are you not?"

Fumi's eyes widened, stunned, and that was enough to confirm to the teenager that indeed she was.

A blue-green beam of light appeared in Chikane right hand and then winked into the shape of a bow. Her voice continued to be eerily calm. "May I please trouble you to step outside? After all, I wouldn't want this to result in any more unnecessary damage to the school."

"Chikane-san...?" Fumi trailed off, feeling bewildered, even as the entire room suddenly seemed to shift and fuzz and then completely disappeared on her. Eyes wide with alarm, Fumi quickly stood up, even as the chair and the desk she'd been sitting at disappeared.

Fumi suddenly found herself in a dark, foreboding, and desolate landscape.

There was rolling fog, and the ground was rock. Around them dotted eight, massive, stone, torii gates, each pillar wider around than a hundred year old tree. The torii gates were so tall, Fumi couldn't quite see the tops of them through the fog.

And yet, despite the fog, she had no problem seeing the swirling, malevolent crescent moon which loomed in the sky. It circled around, slowly, like a foreboding carousel.

Fumi thought she could hear familiar, maniacal laughter echoing on the winds.

_Yes! That's right! Destroy the Hime! Destroy them all!_

She broke out in cold sweat.

_I... I know that voice._

A light-based arrow embedded in the ground less than an inch away from her foot, snapping her out of her thoughts and Fumi jerked her head around to stare at the girl who had shot it.

Her heart clenched in pain, in anguish, at what was going to happen next.

Chikane's face was an expressionless mask of neutrality. "Call your Child, Director."

The pink haired woman stared at the blue-black haired girl for a moment, before grimly reaching down to take off her high heeled shoes in anticipation of the need for mobility.

Then a small, ghostly blue flame appeared in front of her chest, as she suspected it would, if she were ever once more placed in a situation of life-threatening peril. Fumi clapped her hands over the ghost flame, and as she spread her hands outwards, she summoned her scythe. Though Fumi had never wanted to see it again, none the less, the familiar weight of the weapon in her hands brought a grim sort of satisfaction to her. She whirled it around several times, and her muscles remembered exactly how to wield it.

"Please, Chikane-san," Fumi said, even as she widened her stance into a ready position. "We don't have to do this. What is it that you are hoping to accomplish?"

"To be perfectly honest with you," Chikane replied, pointing the bow in Fumi's face, "I haven't really figured that out yet."

She loosed the arrow.

Fumi was able to cut the projectile down in mid air easily. The arrow split in two, and then disintegrated into tiny blue-green sparks. Fumi looked at the sparks grimly; they reminded her all too much of when she had lost Mashiro-sama during the last festival.

The girl loosed another three arrows in quick succession, and Fumi was able to neutralize those threats.

Chikane frowned and lowered her arm, releasing her summons on the bow, as she appeared to realize that it wasn't the best weapon to use against the scythe. But even as she did this, the outline of her body began to glow faintly, and Fumi realized it was because there was some sort of light emitting from behind her, backlighting her.

It only took Fumi a moment longer to realize that that something glowing was Chikane's back itself, and as she watched in morbid fascination, she could see the handle of a sword rise up from behind Chikane's head, from her back, between the shoulder blades.

Chikane reached up and grasped the weapon that was appearing out of her spine by the handle, bringing it forward in a slow, deliberate arch.

Fumi could see that the weapon was a short tanto knife, but even as she watched, both the handle, and the blade, continued to lengthen, and grow, and morph, even as Chikane held it firmly in her right hand. By the time the girl flicked her wrist, and brought the sword horizontally level to point to one side, the handle had grown to accommodate a two handed grasp easily – which she now switched to – and the blade was now edged and over three feet long.

The Director of Fuuka Academy swallowed, and maneuvered her feet into a position better to parry against a weapon closer in size to her own now.

They stared at each other a moment, determined olive green eyes against disturbingly blank murky green ones, before they both sprung at each other.

The parry lasted several strikes, and Fumi was amazed by the speed and agility with which the girl could use the unwieldy weapon, as though it was an extension of her own body, as though wielding the long sword was something as natural to her soul as blinking and breathing. Fumi found herself equally on the defensive as she was on the offense.

They dashed all about the landscape, sometimes using the pillars of the torii gates to spring off at one another, sometimes to use them in defense. The girl came close to connecting with Fumi a couple of times, but luckily only managed to catch her clothing.

After a while, Fumi was beginning to breathe hard, though she was glad to see that she was not the only one. The Director knew she was not someone to be trifled with, and yet, she could not shake the distinct impression that she was being toyed with somehow.

And then, suddenly, Fumi saw it – an opening. Chikane swung a little too slowly, and Fumi was able to jump up, touching the toes of one foot onto the flat side of the blade to propel herself further up into the air, even as her weight pushed the blade downwards with equal force. While in the air, she executed a flip that brought her feet to the side of a pillar, and she pushed off of that to launch herself back down at her opponent, who she counted on not expecting her to return so quickly.

Fumi swung her scythe down.

Her eyes widened in alarm as she realized that her opponent had foreseen this move, for Chikane had looked up with cool impassivity in her eyes as Fumi came at her...

... and then dropped her sword entirely, letting it clatter to the ground, leaving herself entirely unprotected.

Chikane closed her eyes.

Fumi gave a cry of dismay even as she desperately tried to stop herself in mid motion from taking the student's head clean off her shoulders. In the end, she twisted herself awkwardly, just barely missing Chikane's neck but taking a gash out of a cheek, and found herself off balance as she met the ground roughly, smacking her face and her shoulder into the ground with enough momentum to leave her dazed as she rolled badly and with such force that she felt a shoulder dislocate.

Fumi gave a cry of pain as she bounced and skidded to a stop several feet away, her scythe out of arms reach. Her right shoulder screamed in protest, and she muffled a second cry.

A shadow fell over her, and when Fumi looked up, she could see the student staring down at her with eyebrows crinkled in apology. "You should have just swung, Director." Chikane said softly even as blood welled up from the gash on her cheek and spilled downwards. "I wouldn't have blamed you."

Fumi winced as she tried to sit up and scoot away.

Chikane frowned. "Call your Child, Director."

Fumi grit her teeth. "Why do you want me to do that?" She gasped, even as she held her shoulder.

Chikane looked sorrowful, but did not answer the question. "Please, Director Himeno." She repeated herself. "I beg you. Call. Your. Child."

"No!" Fumi cried. "No. I don't know what you want out of all this, Chikane-san, but I will not-"

"You will not endanger your most important person?" Chikane asked softly. "But isn't Kazahana Mashiro already dead? What have you got to lose? It is not like you are with her anyway."

Fumi felt tears of pain well up in the corners of her eyes. She didn't have to reminded that Mashiro-sama wasn't with her anymore. She felt that loss – keenly – every day.

Chikane looked down at the woman for a moment longer, before crouching down. Grabbing the woman's arm roughly, Fumi gave a cry of pain as the student yanked up on her arm, and then Fumi's cry became even more shrill, as she heard something go '_crunch_'.

But curiously, after that, her shoulder stopped hurting, and Fumi realized that the student had popped her shoulder back into place. She stared at the girl in bewilderment. "What are you doing?" Fumi asked, wearily, even as she gently, gingerly, rotated her shoulder. It was still tender.

Again, the girl did not answer. Instead, she closed her eyes. She raised a hand up into the air, and made a fist.

As Fumi watched, with a morbid sense of detachment, a giant, disembodied, vaguely mechanical looking red armoured arm and fist wavered and then appeared in the air above the girl.

When she swung it down, the fist smashed into the ground with a thunderous boom, sending dust and debris flying up into a blinding cloud of dust and Fumi would have been crushed - _oh god! Mashiro-sama!_ - underneath the giant fist had she not felt something hit her from the side and carry her bodily out of the way.

When the dust cleared, and Fumi opened her eyes, she realized she was still being held. Looking up, Fumi felt her heart leap into her throat as she saw a familiar form holding onto her.

The form was female, very tall, and very large, with long, silver-white hair, and twin long horns protruding fearsomely out and forward from the crown of her head. She wore a white gi with red trim and torn sleeves, and a necklace and bracelets made out of large, golden, fist-sized prayer beads. Ghostly white flames flickered all around her.

Fumi's eyes widened. Her voice was very small. "... Mashiro-sama?"

Suishouhime looked down at her, and smiled fondly, and Fumi felt her heart clench even tighter in her chest. She could hear her Child's voice in her mind.

_Fumi-san. _

Fumi thought her heart would break upon hearing her mentor's soft, dulcet voice. "Mashiro-sama!" She breathed, hearing her voice crack. Even if it wasn't _quite_ Mashiro-sama. Even if it was only Suishouhime.

_She could remember the first time she met Kazahana Mashiro. She had run away from her foster home, and had spent the last week on the streets. She was filthy and she was starving, and her eyes were downcast with defeat as she sat on the curb of the road, people choosing to pretend they could not see her as they walked passed her. _

_And then she could hear the slow squeak of a wheel, and a pair of polished brown shoes supported by the base of a wheel chair appeared at the edge of her vision. Fumi looked up, and saw a pretty girl, her face framed with lavender hair, maybe the same age as she was, looking down at her fondly with almost glowing green eyes._

And then they were reminded that they were not alone, when the girl who had reunited them stepped forward.

Chikane stared at the pale haired Child. "Suishouhime." She said softly, smiling faintly. "Kazahana Mashiro. It is an honor to meet you." And then, that faint smile turned apologetic, sincerely apologetic, as Chikane pulled one arm back, and her bow and arrow appeared in her hands once more.

"I am very sorry about this."

Fumi stared in horror, as the arrow the girl had pulled back began to glow a dark ominous red, with tendrils of deep purple snaking about it. She could feel the negativity, the despair, roiling off of the projectile in waves, even from where she was being held.

She couldn't do anything as the arrow was released, and struck Suishouhime in the middle of her chest.

* * *

Underneath the library of Fuuka Academy were the remains of the Obsidian Palace, and the pillars of the fallen Hime. The pillars had been undisturbed for the last many months, since the end of the last Festival.

Now, with an ominous groan, one of the pillars slowly rumbled and rose out from the ground.

Unlike the last Festival however, the pillar did not simply rise.

It also started to darken, slowly at first, and then faster and faster, until it became a deep, dark, foreboding black-purple that seemed, somehow, to glow by stealing and consuming the light and warmth around it.

* * *

On the other side of Japan, in the middle of a lesson plan, standing at the front of her classroom, Utena suddenly got very, very dizzy and collapsed to the floor. Her students rushed to her aid.

* * *

Somewhere, in a place not quite here, and not quite there, chains holding down one of eight monstrous, serpentine necks, groaned, creaked, and snapped. The one freed neck opened her eyes, and rose up.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

... because really, the only thing missing from Utena was giant robots. Oh, why did it have to be giant robots? Because I just couldn't figure out how to make sideways driving sport-cars work either (having only certain limbs show up, rather than the full mech though, is how they did things in Kyoshiro to Towa no Kuu, rather than Kannazuki no Miko proper, and I gotta say, I liked the mecha fight scenes in Kyoshiro a lot more than I did the ones in Kannazuki no Miko, so, um, yeah.)

... can anyone tell me what the bottom half of Suishouhime looks like? In Mai Otome, I know her bottom half is Miroku, but, I'm preetty sure that's not how she looks in Mai Hime...

(EDIT: 'Glaive' has now been changed to 'scythe' in this chapter, as I discover there is a difference between the two.)

2 of the 3 following Omake (well, okay, 3 of the 3) were inspired by **DezoPenquin**'s hilarious (and insightful) comments in the reviews. Thank you Dezo! XD

The next chapter will probably be out between March 31, 2013 - April 4, 2013. I should have a better indication around mid next week!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Not Really A Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episode – Part I (Please blame this one on DezoPenquin!)

[CHIKANE's voice can be heard doing the voice over top of a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen^H^H^H^H^H actually, scratch all that. There are no clips at all. The scene is JURI's bedroom. There are two forms under the blanket. CHIKANE sits up, holding the blanket up to her otherwise bare chest as she sleepily and blurrily does the voice over.]

CHIKANE: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over... AAAH!

JURI: [Bolts upright in bed beside CHIKANE. She is equally naked.] What's going – AAAAH!

CHIKANE: AAAH! What are you doing here?!

JURI: What am I doing here? This is MY bed! What are YOU doing here?!

[They both stare at each other and then remember just how completely and absolutely PISSED DRUNK they were in the last omake.]

CHIKANE: ...! [Blushes bright red]

JURI: ...! [Buries her head in her hands] Dammit! Didn't I JUST tell the board in this chapter I DIDN'T do this?!

[Just then, the bedroom door opens and HIMEKO sticks her head in holding a spatula and wearing an apron. Only an apron – nothing else.]

HIMEKO: Hey, sleepyheads! Geez, it's about time you both woke up! I make breakfast. [Disappears back into kitchen]

CHIKANE & JURI : O_O!

[CHIKANE & JURI slowly turn their heads to look at each other with expressions flip flopping between dumb-founded stupefaction to fascinated appraisal.]

JURI: ...?

CHIKANE: ... Sorry. But I am NOT very good with sharing...

JURI: Nuts. There goes the thinking-outside-of-the-box third option.

* * *

OMAKE II: Not Really A Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episode – Part II (This one is still Dezo's fault, in a long, round-about way.)

[CHIKANE's voice can be heard doing the voice over top of a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen^H^H^H^H^H actually, scratch all that. There are no clips at all. The scene is JURI's apartment bedroom. There are two forms under the blanket. CHIKANE sits up, holding the blanket up to her otherwise bare chest as she sleepily and blurrily does the voice over.]

CHIKANE: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over... AAAH!

JURI: [Bolts upright in bed beside CHIKANE. She is equally naked.] What's going – AAAAH!

CHIKANE: AAAH! What are you doing here?!

JURI: What am I doing here, oh, for chrissake, now the author's just being lazy with the copy/pasta. It's not like the word count in this chapter isn't ridiculous already!

[Both CHIKANE and JURI look towards the door and wait for HIMEKO to pop her head in so they can grill her with questions. A tawny haired head pops in through the door, but it's not HIMEKO.]

SHIZURU: [Wearing only apron and holding spatula] Ara, ara, why are you two still in bed? Are you continuing on without me?

CHIKANE & JURI : O_O!

CHIKANE: [Stares at JURI] What the hell were we drinking last night?

JURI: [Looks at the bottle] 900 Billion X Red Wine, apparently...

* * *

OMAKE III: Not Really A Mai-Hime Style Preview of Next Episode – Part III (So this one prooobably isn't Dezo's fault... Okay, maybe a little.)

[CHIKANE's voice can be heard doing the voice over top of a series of fast paced clips yadda yadda yadda. Continuing with the previous omake, both CHIKANE and JURI open their eyes and stare at each other silently. They cautiously sit up in bed.]

CHIKANE: ...

JURI: ...

[They both turn to look at the bedroom door in horrified anticipation. The door eventually opens, and HARUKOW and NANAMOO stick their heads in. How cows can put aprons on, and hold onto spatulas without thumbs or fingers is beyond me but they do it.]

HARUKOW & NANAMOO: Moooou.

CHIKANE & JURI: O_O!

[Suddenly, the scene cuts to a nondescript woman sitting at a computer typing wildly. The bed that CHIKANE and JURI were laying on suddenly comes FLYING THROUGH THE WALL and flips onto the woman, CRUSHING EVERY BONE IN HER BODY.]

AUTHOR: Ow. Sorry. Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 13 – 'Phone Calls to the Edge'.


	14. Chp 13 - Phone calls to the Edge

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 13 (Phone calls to the Edge)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

February 23, 2013 – March 6, 2013

Word Count: 9,700

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

On the other side of Japan, in the middle of a lesson plan, standing at the front of her classroom, Utena suddenly got very, very dizzy and collapsed to the floor. Her students rushed to her aid, the class rep telling one of her peers to quickly go get the school nurse. The nurse checked all her vitals, but couldn't find anything wrong with her. Still, to be safe, they escorted her to the nurse's room and asked her to rest there for a little bit.

Despite this, Utena couldn't help but know, deep down, in the very core of her being, that something fundamental was changing – had changed – in the universe, and whatever that something was, it was terrible, and heartbreaking. She felt as though someone was screaming for help, that a great injustice was being committed right now, that something beautiful and meant-to-be was being ripped apart and perverted.

_... no, not ripped apart, s_omething deep inside Utena's soul corrected, _but rather, unwound, unwritten, and rewritten, into something... something soulless. Something without love._

The nausea hit her again, and Utena's vision swam. Vertigo assaulted her, and for a moment, she felt as though she were zooming out of her own skull, up and up, the world shrinking smaller and smaller in front of her, until she could see the whole of it in front of her, and the people, so many people, so many unhappy, distraught, crying people, howling for help.

Howling for _her_ help.

_WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING THEM? _Something deep inside her demanded._ YOU ARE THE PRINCE, ARE YOU NOT? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN YOU DUT-_

She managed to grab the garbage can beside the bed just in time.

When she was done retching, she put the can down and weakly wiped the spittle from her mouth. Sliding feebly backwards, she threw an arm over her eyes and trembled on top of the mattress for a few minutes, having broken out in cold sweat.

_What... what the hell was that?!_

Swallowing, the bitter taste of the bile in her mouth managed to ground her firmly back into her own body, on the nurse's bed, and Utena took a shuddering breath.

That was when the anxiety and baseless (but was it really baseless?) paranoia hit, and Utena suddenly scrambled up and fumbled for her phone from her jacket pocket. Punching in her daughter's number with quivering hands, she thought she would go nuts from anticipation as the phone rang, and rang and rang.

_Pick up the phone, baby girl! Please! Pick up the phone!_

Chikane finally answered after far too many rings. Her voice was completely normal and neutral, toneless, even. "Hello?"

Utena's heart did a strange flip in her chest. On the one hand, the calm, collected voice of her daughter brought instant relief to her mind – _oh, thank god, she's alright_ – and yet, an instinct inside her heart kept insisting that not all was as it appeared. "Baby girl? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

Surprise entered her daughter's voice. "I'm fine, Okaa-sama. Nothing's happened to me. Did something happen to you? You don't sound well."

Utena was silent as she evaluated her daughter's words. There was obvious concern in her daughter's voice, and she wanted desperately to believe in her daughter's words, _desperately_, and yet, she could tell that Chikane was hiding _something_ from her.

Memories of those alien yellow eyes on her daughter's face flashed through Utena's mind, and she grit her teeth.

_Stop this, _she scolded herself. _Stop this now._

"I guess I just had a weird panic attack." Utena finally admitted, laughing weakly, fooling no one. "Wow. Your old woman really is getting old."

"I see." Chikane replied, faint amusement in her voice.

Though the conversation should have ended there, Utena was not ready to let her daughter go yet. Hastily, she wracked her brains for something, anything, to keep her on the line. "Um... so... so how is everything? How's school?" And then, an old memory clicked in her mind, and Utena blurted, "oh! My surprise! Has she shown up yet?"

Chikane was silent on the other side of the line for a very long time.

Utena frowned, feeling that anxiety in her heart rise again. "Hello? Chikane? Are you still there?"

"Yes, I am, Okaa-sama," Chikane replied quickly, a little too quickly. "Sorry. Yes, I met H..." her voice skipped, "...I met Kurusugawa-san. Yes. It was everything I had hoped for. I wish you could have been here to see it."

And now Utena could tell her daughter really was lying. The heartbreak in her voice was unmistakable.

"Chikane-" Utena tried to say, but her daughter cut her off.

"I'm sorry, Okaa-sama, but I have to go. I'm actually in the middle of something somewhat pressing right now."

Utena's brow creased with worry. Desperately, she tried to think of another topic to ask her daughter about. Anything. She just didn't want her daughter to go. Her instincts told her that if she let her go, then it would be a very long time before she'd be able to talk to her again.

"Chikane-"

"Please, Okaa-sama, I-"

"I love you." Utena said, because she suddenly felt that it was absolutely imperative that she remind her daughter of that. "I love you. I'll always be here for you. Always."

Her daughter was silent on the line. Finally, after an eternity of a moment, she replied, "I love you too, Okaa-sama."

And then Chikane hung up.

Utena felt her phone slip out from her fingers.

She clenched her hands into fists.

Something inside of her threatened to break.

Something important, something that supported the basis upon which the core of strength within her had been built and sprung from, for so many years now, that which had enabled a scare, stupid, kid to struggle on against the misery of the world and carve out a life, a relatively happy life, for herself and her baby.

Faith.

Faith that someone she loved was looking out for her and hers.

Faith that Himemiya Anthy had been moved, that someone as far gone over the edge of despair as even the Rose Bride had been, was able to once more open her eyes after eons of misery and torture, and have the courage and hope to step out into the world again.

To look for her. To look out for her. To shine together.

Even if Himemiya Anthy couldn't be seen. Even if Himemiya Anthy couldn't be touched.

Somewhere, somehow, deep down, Utena had always known that Anthy was with her, every day, looking out for her, for her child, whom she had named after her, to never forget her, to have some semblance of her in her life always (even if that child went by another name on a daily basis, she was always 'Anthy' on some level to her mother). To make sure that they were okay. To make sure nothing horrifying they couldn't eventually spring back from would ever befall them.

_Himemiya. _

Angry, inhuman, monstrous yellow eyes flashed through Utena's mind, followed by an image of her daughter, splattered with blood, holding a very long sword, swinging madly away at an ancient, bound foe, severing heads with wild desperation in her eyes.

Akio stood beside her. Anthy stood behind him.

Utena clenched her fists, and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her faith broke.

Himemiya Anthy, Utena thought, was gone. She hadn't been looking out for her all these years, after all.

It was then that she felt the wind play with strands of her hair.

Turning her head towards the window, she spied... absolutely no one there.

Utena closed her eyes again, and laid down on the bed once more, feeling suddenly, very, very tired and wary.

"Himemiya," she whispered softly, finally able to utter that name out loud. "Please, if you're out there somewhere, please, answer me. What happened? What happened to my baby?"

She waited a long time for an answer – any sign of an answer – but the room remained silent. No one answered her questions. Utena looked over at the window again, but there was no one there.

It wasn't until a little while later, did she wonder, absently to herself, '_why did I feel the wind blow if the window is shut?'_

* * *

In a desolate landscape, Himeno Fumi sat in the dirt and stared straight ahead, unseeing, unhearing.

She didn't notice when her blue-black haired attacker lowered her arm, the bow she held in it flickering, and then disappearing entirely.

All she knew was that Suishouhime was gone, disintegrated into a cloud of purple black speckles before her very eyes, and then time had slowed to a crawl.

Even when there came a sudden and shrill ringing sound that vibrated all around, all that prompted Fumi to do was to blink slowly.

Her world had ended. How could time still exist after that?

Chikane frowned. "Excuse me," she said, before turning away from Fumi and pulling a cellphone out of her pocket to put to her ear. "Hello?"

Fumi woodenly turned to look at the girl. She could see her. She could hear her conversation. But none of it seemed to be making much sense in her mind.

"I'm fine, Okaa-sama. Nothing's happened to me. Did something happen to you? You don't sound well."

_A phone call?_ Fumi wondered.

"I see."

The director frowned. _But... how is there reception here?_

At this point, there was a second pause, much longer than the first, and in its duration, Fumi blinked slowly once more. Time still seemed to be moving strangely.

When Chikane spoke again, her voice was noticeably more strained than before. "... Yes, I am, Okaa-sama. Sorry. Yes, I met H... I met Kurusugawa-san. Yes. It was everything I had hoped for. I wish you could have been here to see it. I'm sorry, Okaa-sama, but I have to go. I'm actually in the middle of something somewhat pressing right now. Please, Okaa-sama. I..."

There was another long pause.

"... I love you too, Okaa-sama."

_Curious..._ Fumi thought, as she listened to Chikane's voice, softer than she'd ever heard it.

_How can one capable of such cruelty also be capable of such tenderness...?_

Chikane pulled the cell phone from her ear, blood from the gash on her cheek smeared all over it. She ended the call and put the phone back in her pocket. She was silent for a while after that, and Fumi thought she could see the girl take a long, deep breath, before turning around to face her again, her mask back on.

"I'm sorry about that," Chikane said, crouching down so that Fumi's could look her in the eyes. Fumi stared at the left eye uncomprehendingly, wondering, with an almost detached sense of morbid curiosity, why the large black vein that ran through it looked so familiar. Even as she looked at the eye, the gash on the cheek directly under it began to heal, leaving only the blood already spilt to dry on the skin.

"Are you hurt, Director Himeno?"

Fumi stared at Chikane.

_Hurt? _

It wasn't a particularly complicated question, and yet, Fumi found herself having a hard time answering it.

Finally, she blinked again, once, twice, before saying, in a very hoarse voice, "... what did you do? What did you do to Suishouhime? To Mashiro-sama? Why..."

And the enormity of just how _hurt_ she was finally hit Fumi full in the face, in all of her senses, snapping her out of her dazed funk.

Time sped up to regular pace again. and she grit her teeth even as she clawed at her chest, trying to rip out what was trying to pass itself off as her heart.

"Why do I feel so... ! So...!"

"Empty?" Chikane's expression was remorseful.

Fumi cringed, clenching her eyes shut even as tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.

Mashiro-sama. The girl who had taken her in, and given her everything when she had nothing. The girl who provided her twenty years of home, duty and purpose. Her most important person. The girl she loved with every fibre of her being. Just recalling memories with Mashiro-sama used to fill her heart with strength, enough to get through the day, enough to make a difference in many, many young lives.

But right now, thoughts of Mashiro-sama made her feel... nothing.

Like there was a crater in her chest where her heart should have been.

Like Mashiro was no one to her at all.

Like the last twenty years of her life hadn't happened the way she remembered it.

In her mind's eye, it was as though she had two sets of memories – one in which she'd grown up the maid of Kazahana Mashiro, the other in which she'd simply gone back to the foster home.

When Fumi opened her eyes again, they were ablaze and she slapped Chikane in the face as hard as she could. The blue-black haired girl's head was wrenched roughly to the side by the force of the slap, and stayed there for a while. When the girl turned her head back to regard the director, there was a trickle of blood coming out of her mouth.

"A Child is the manifestation of a person's love for their most important person. They are powered by it, and they are personified by it," Chikane said softly, patiently, wiping the blood away from the corner of her lips. "I am sorry, but I have need for that power, for your power. I hope, one day, to be able to return it to you, but that is not something I can promise."

Fumi stared at the girl who said this to her, and she knew hatred, and she knew despair.

It came to her with disturbing ease.

She raised her hand to strike Chikane again.

"Call your servant."

Fumi froze. "What?"

"Suishouhime." The blue-black haired girl repeated, even as she got to her feet, and offered Fumi a hand up. The maid ignored it. Chikane retracted her hand awkwardly. "She may not be your Child anymore, for the Child known as Suishouhime, born of the affection Himeno Fumi held for Kazahana Mashiro, never existed, as the circumstances that brought Kazahana Mashiro into your heart have been overwritten. However, Suishouhime is still connected to you. As your servant. As your other self. Call her."

Fumi stared at Chikane as though she were completely mad. And then, with a tremble in her voice, Fumi whispered the name.

"S-suishou... hime..."

As she said this, there was a dull roar in the distance, and when Fumi turned to face it, she could see a familiar outline appear, lumbering out of the rolling fog.

Fumi covered her mouth with her hands in horror.

Out of the mists, Suishouhime appeared before her. While her outline hadn't changed, everything else had. Her skin, formerly a luminous, pearly white, was now a twisted grey-brown color. Her formerly beautiful, unearthly face was skeletal, with empty, black eye sockets, and a mouth full of twisted, jagged teeth. In the middle of her chest, where Chikane had shot her, was a darkly glowing, complicated symbol of interlocking lines cradled by a crescent moon.

Faintly, in the back of Fumi's head, she could hear it.

Screams of fury. Roars of outrage.

The Obsidian Lord.

_What are you doing?! You have Suishouhime and her Hime in your grasp! You should kill them! Tear them apart limb from limb so that their souls will never know peace, in this world, or the one after it! I will have my vengeance!_

And she could hear Chikane's voice in her head too. Calm and cold as ice.

_Death is not the worst punishment. There are things far worse than death. _

_In the face of despair, death is a mercy._

And as Fumi stared at what had become of Suishouhime, she wished, very dearly, for mercy.

* * *

"_Hey, Natsuki? Why does sex have to change everything?"_

"_I don't know, Mikoto. It just does."_

Memories of a conversation from a few months ago drifted unbidden into Natsuki's mind just as she crossed that threshold between dreaming and consciousness. She hadn't been able to answer her younger friend that day, but now, Natsuki thought idly, if Mikoto were to ask her again, she thought she might be able to give her a more satisfactory answer.

She could feel Shizuru's breath tickling the top of her head. She had fallen asleep on top of her, in her bed, their limbs all a tangle, her head resting on Shizuru's chest.

_It's because it's an act that strips everything away from you, and leaves you naked, defenseless and vulnerable, and, somehow, you're supposed to share yourself, in that state, with nothing else, just you, with someone else. And you're out there, just, out there, on a limb, unsupported, and they... they could do anything to you. They could take you at your most vulnerable moment, and, they could really mess you up. But, somehow, you trust that they won't, and then, together, you go to this place you've never been before, and you only get to go there for the first time once, and, after you get there with that someone, whom no one else has been to before, and a whole other world you didn't know existed just blossoms out in front of you, like... like eternity, or a miracle, or something shining... how can everything **not** change? _

Even as she thought about this, Natsuki blushed, memories of the previous night's activities coming back to her. She'd now gone to that place with Shizuru several more times since their first trip there a couple weeks ago, and Natsuki realized she was probably being silly for still thinking so reverently about sex but she just couldn't quite help herself.

Maybe, one day, it wouldn't mean so much anymore – certainly, she knew enough about how the world worked to know how easily people could become jaded (take, herself, for instance), that even the most sacred of unions could quickly become just another itch to scratch, but, she hoped that day wouldn't come too soon.

Natsuki took a deep breath, even as she languidly drew circles with her index finger tip on Shizuru's skin. The older girl remained asleep.

Maybe they were overdoing it. Maybe it had been a bad idea to give Chikane their room for space, to have spent the last couple of weeks living with Shizuru instead. Sexual intimacy hadn't been why Natsuki had done it, of course, though she'd had a suspicion that it would result. Just not... so... copiously...

Natsuki took another deep breath.

Her heart was in seriously weird dichotomy.

On the one hand, she could not help feeling dread, and nervousness, clawing at the back of her heart.

On the other hand, the rest of her heart was so full and happy with what she was experiencing with Shizuru, sometimes, she couldn't even tell which way was up, and which way was down anymore.

She couldn't quite tell what was important, and what wasn't.

Something seriously bad was going down with Chikane. Natsuki knew this. Her friend had changed, subtly in the eyes of those who didn't know her very well, but Natsuki _did_ know Chikane well (somehow, against all odds, two closed off and very private individuals had found a way to connect to one another, as though their bonds had been there from a previous life), and she thought the changes to be quite drastic.

_When Natsuki had gotten home the night of the gala, she had been surprised to see her roommate not in bed. She had waited up all night for Chikane to return, and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning did the student morality squad finally escort the student council president home, everyone looking deeply concerned._

_Natsuki hadn't even gotten out of her dress yet – Chikane had said she wanted pictures of the gala after all, and Natsuki had figured her friend would have gotten a kick out of seeing her all decked out. So, she had still been dressed in finery, quite out of place, when Chikane was escorted home._

_Natsuki had been surprised. "Where were you? What happened?" She had asked._

_And Chikane had simply shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it," she said, shutting down that line of conversation immediately, though she did give her roommate an appraising glance to soften her rudeness when Natsuki had frowned. Chikane gave her a smile she might have actually felt. "You look lovely, Natsuki-sempai."_

"_Oh, um, thank you." Natsuki had said, hesitantly, not quite sure how to broach something her roommate obviously did not want to talk about. "I took some pictures at the gala, like you asked." She had said, trying to break the ice._

_Chikane had raised an eyebrow. "Did I ask you for pictures?" _

_Natsuki had frowned. "Yes, earlier in the evening. You said you were going to sleep your headache off, and asked me to have fun at the gala, and to take pictures." She pulled her phone out to show her roommate the text._

_Chikane took the phone and read her message. Then she had simply said, "... I see." _

_After that, Chikane started to actively avoid Natsuki, going so far as to not return to their room at night to sleep. How she managed to escape curfew detection, and where the girl was actually sleeping, Natsuki didn't know, but she had flipped out after the third night of worrying about her._

_Skipping one of her own classes, Natsuki had waited outside Chikane's one day, and grabbed her arm tightly just as classes were let out. _

_Natsuki couldn't even really remember the words she had exchanged with her roommate, only that they had been harsh, on both sides. All she could really remember with certainty was at one point, throwing her hands up in the air and shouting, "Whatever! Look, if it's ME you can't stand, then I'LL move out. I can just go stay with Shizuru or Mai or something. But you... you shouldn't not come home for days at a time! That's not right! Stop making everyone worry!" _

And that's how Natsuki had found herself on Shizuru's doorstep, and the last week had been... eye opening.

Natsuki sighed. She just couldn't help feeling like an epically bad person, the most horrible of bottom feeders.

While one of her closest friends was going through something freakishly sinister which may or may not involve supernatural elements and the end of the world, here she was, having night after night of mind blowing sex with her girlfriend, so grand, they barely made it out of bed the next morning.

Natsuki knew, first hand, that despair and depression could seriously mess you up. Everything could get so overwhelming you couldn't see or think or walk straight anymore. She had no idea that happiness could make her feel the same way.

_Seriously. What is wrong with me? Why can't I figure out what's right and what's wrong anymore?_

Natsuki knew that she should be expending most of her energy on helping out a friend in need, even if that friend was making helping her impossible.

It was then that Natsuki felt Shizuru stroking her hair, and that sensation flipped her heart on its side again. Shizuru was awake. Natsuki craned her head up to look at ruby eyes regarding her with sleepy fondness.

"Good morning," Shizuru said softly.

"Morning." Natsuki replied.

Shizuru frowned, obviously sensing the change in Natsuki's mood. "What's bothering you?" Shizuru asked.

Natsuki looked away.

Shizuru sighed. "Natsuki, please, talk to me."

Natsuki shook her head. She knew she wasn't being fair or rational, but right now, in that moment, she didn't want to deal with the world just yet. She just wanted to stay here, in the comfort of Shizuru's arms, for a few minutes longer, where everything was _right_.

Pulling herself upwards a little, Natsuki resettled herself on top of Shizuru's body, and kissed her, deeply.

When she did this, everything else seemed to disappear. There was just her, and Shizuru. Nothing else existed.

Not even their silently buzzing cell phones, which had fallen off the night stand and onto the floor, muffled amongst discarded clothing.

* * *

The universe was a strange thing that sometimes resembled a piece of paper, and sometimes a piece of cloth. There's a reason why they called it the 'fabric' of reality. Despite what most people thought, the universe, and time, and reality, was not a set, static thing. It was quite responsive to those that existed within it, and sometimes, under very specific circumstances, it could be twisted and changed and bent to the will of the gods, higher and lessor, those incarnations of the basic, fundamental principles and emotions of the universe that sometimes became so strong they manifested to walk amongst humanity.

This was how the Hime Star could grant the wishes of the victor of the Festival, before the system was hijacked and overtaken by Obsidian, the God of Ambition and Greed. It was how the sacrifice of the Solar and Lunar Priestesses could unwind the destruction of the Eight Headed Demon of Despair. It was how the Witch could cut the Prince off from the source of his power, and why the Witch could not be with the new Prince, even though she knew she was loved by the new Prince, for there were other things lying dormant in the heart of the new Prince that would awaken at her presence. Angry things. Hateful things.

The End of the World smiled, as, despite his powerlessness, he still had the ability to sense it when his brethren tried to twist the universe, change what was or what was meant to be, to suit their own needs.

He stood on the top of the third torii gate, in the place that was not quite here and not quite there, and watched, impassively, as his daughter, the new Orochi, tried to force her will upon the universe, to un-write the personal history of Himeno Fumi, and turn the Hime into one of her followers, one of her disciples, one of her necks.

This wasn't the first time the Lunar Priestess had tried to fight back against the universe.

She hadn't been entire successful (or unsuccessful, depending on one's point of view) the last time, and she wasn't going to be entirely successful this time either, as tampering with the fabric of reality and trying to re-weave what-has-already-happened was not something that _any_ of the incarnations did lightly. And if he had to guess what was going on through her mind, based on her actions so far, he would wager that she would be attempting this at least seven more times to come.

He smiled.

The universe was not going to just sit there and take it. She was twisting it too roughly, too insistently. Inelegant. Barbarian.

Tears were forming – had already formed. And from the tears in reality, those that did not exist within the universe, were already starting to creep and crawl their way into it, eager to taste the intoxicating headiness of existence.

In fact, several large, glowing red eyes were already peering out curiously from one of the cracks, inside the forest that bordered Fuuka Acadamy, and a single, large, clawed hand tentatively pushed its way out of the crack, and into the world.

The End of the World felt his smile broaden.

There was no way that the new Prince could ignore this for much longer.

He brought out a cellphone – not his – and tapped two short messages into it.

The first one he sent to an old acquaintance he'd had off and on contact with for the last 16 years: _What you seek can be found under the area that was once a dueling arena._

The second one he sent to one whose acquaintance he had yet to meet:

_Do you want to remember?_

* * *

_Miss Mikoto! Cometh quickly, thy presence is needed!_

Mikoto looked up from her homework with a piece of toast still sticking out of her mouth at Chu Chu, who had just run up to her and was 'chu!'ing excitedly, waving her arms about.

"Hmm?" Mikoto quickly swallowed her bread. "What is it, Chu-suke?"

_I hath detected a treasure trove of undergarments so marvelous the gods themselves would weep to behold the sight! Tis discovery most auspicious, windfall most divine! _

"Panties?" Frowning, Mikoto got up from the table she was doing her homework at. She followed Chu Chu to the window and poked her head and the entire upper half of her body out to take a look. Chu Chu leapt onto her head and pointed due east.

'Chu!'

Mikoto cocked her head to the side. Chu Chu was pointing at the teacher's residence building. On the fourth floor, someone had hung out a circular clothes rack to dry. It was currently holding several (mostly dried) bras and panties. Mikoto's brow crinkled. "Mmm... I think those already belong to someone, Chu-suke. I don't know if we should take them."

_Oh, Miss Mikoto, please! Thou art breaking mine heart! Please, lend me thine ear and listen closely! Closeth thine eyes! _

Mikoto did as she was asked.

_Canst thou not hear it? The sad, melancholic wail of a beautifully sew garment, unused? Denied the warm flesh of one twas made to support and hold, in sickness and in health, 'til death do them part? Tis a most sacred union, that be'twix a woman's flesh and the garments that coddle them. To treat one's underthings with such callousness! Such cruelty! Does not thine heart weep for the injustice in this world?_

Mikoto scratched her head. "Um... I don't really understand what you're saying, Chu-suke, but, I guess, if you want the underwear so much, we can go get it."

_Oh, Miss Mikoto! Thou art a knight! A saint! Thou art a bastion of all that is good in this world! A Prince! A King! All that which- _CHUUU!

The monkey mouse was cut off from her soliloquy when Mikoto simply dropped head first out the third story window of her dorm room, did a couple of somersaults in the air, and then landed on her feet with her arms stretched out like a gymnast.

_Uoooh! Truly magnificent, Miss Mikoto! Magnificent! _The monkey mouse 'chu'ed furiously, and then displayed a sign over her head with 9.9 written upon it in black marker.

Mikoto rubbed the back of her head shyly. "Um, thanks, Chu-suke."

She skipped over to the other building, and then started to scale the wall, leaping from window ledge to window ledge with ease, sometimes needing to swing herself up over a balcony. She managed to reach the balcony with the drying underwear without breaking a sweat, and took the plastic drying ring down.

"Here you go." Mikoto said showing the monkey mouse on her head the booty. "Which one did you want?"

_ALL OF THEM!_

"Maah. Greedy, aren't you?" Shrugging, Mikoto carefully pulled the bras and panties from the ring and shoved them down the front her shirt, giving one of the panties to Chu Chu, who rubbed her face against it lovingly. Hoping back onto the balcony railing, Mikoto was about to go, when she heard a very angry shout behind her.

"Mikoto!" Sagisawa Youko-sensei cried in exasperation as she ripped open her balcony door, hellish fury clear on her face. "What are you doing?!"

Chu Chu gave a start of surprise and swallowed the panties she was holding in her paws to hide them. They lodged in her throat unexpectedly, and she turned a deeper shade of purple than normal, eyes bulging.

"Gah!" So surprised was she at being caught, Mikoto slipped on the balcony railing, and before she knew it, she found herself plummeting downwards, head first.

_What? _Mikoto thought, confusedly. _What is this feeling? What happened? Why is the ground coming towards me so quickly?_

She slammed roughly in the bushes underneath Youko-sensei's balcony, the back of her head actually hitting the ground with a loud smack.

Everything went black for a moment.

Time ceased to exist.

There was nothing, nothing at all. Just darkness.

And then, Mikoto thought she could hear shouting.

Stunned and dazed, Mikoto opened her eyes and looked blurrily up at the sky. It was a pretty blue, dotted by the odd white cloud, and an errant bird. _What... what happened?_

She wasn't sure how much time passed, but the shouting got louder, and clearer, until she could almost make out the words. Chu Chu's face popped up in her field of vision. The monkey mouse gave a 'chu?' of inquiry.

_Miss Mikoto! Art thou whole?_

Blinking a few times, Mikoto turned and realized that several people were staring at her in worry and horror, and it was these folks who were shouting.

"Oi! Minagi! Are you alright?!" Cried one of the boys Mikoto recognized was her classmate.

Mikoto blinked, and then nodded. She sat up and climbed out of the bushes, brushing the sticks and leaves out of her hair and clothes. She looked up and could see Youko-sensei staring down at her with disbelief.

Mikoto smiled weakly up at the nurse. "Sorry about that, Sensei!" She called.

"Mikoto!" Youko-sensei cried, supremely perturbed. "What the hell?! You just fell off of a 4th story balcony! How can you just get up?!"

_4__th__ story? _Mikoto scratched her head. _Huh. That is kinda on the high side..._ A creepy, crawly unpleasant sensation clawed at the back of her mind, and Mikoto did her best to ignore it. "It's okay, sensei! I'm alright! Don't worry!" To demonstrate her health, she waved to the teacher, and then got down on all fours to bolt away.

Mikoto wasn't sure why she was running, or why she suddenly felt so scared. For some reason, she could remember a confusion conversation from a few weeks back, close to the beginning of summer, when everyone's Hime marks had returned.

"_I wished... I wished that Mikoto didn't have to die."_

Mikoto frowned. She hadn't understood that conversation at all at the time, and no one had been willing to explain what Mai had meant either. She had wanted to ask her roommate about that several times, but Mai had always looked so uncomfortable, and if it was one thing Mikoto never wanted to do, it was to make Mai sad, so she always let the topic drop.

Mikoto tried to remember back to the fight with the Obsidian Lord. She remembered being injured. She remembered jumping in front of her brother's sword to take a swing meant for Mai. She remembered it hurt a lot, at first, and then, for some reason, it stopped hurting so bad, and she just started getting sleepy.

She wasn't really quite sure what happened after that. She knew they'd defeated her brother, somehow. She could remember everyone crowding around her. She could remember seeing Kagutsuchi standing behind Mai, and fading away. She could remember hearing Miroku, inside her mind, telling her everything was going to be okay.

She remembered Mai screaming at her. "_Don't go, Mikoto! Don't go! Please... please... I... I don't want you to die, Mikoto. Please, don't die. Don't... die..."_

And she could remember, thinking to herself, _hmm... Mai doesn't want me to die. So... so I shouldn't die. That would make Mai sad. I don't want Mai to be sad... _

She wasn't completely sure what happened after that, but she remembered thinking to herself, how nice it was that both she and Mai wanted the same thing, and then, somehow, the pain in her middle became a different kind of pain - the familiar pangs of hunger instead.

She really couldn't remember what happened after that.

Mikoto frowned. She had put a lot of distance between herself and the commotion she had caused earlier, so she slowed her four legged run down to a two legged one, and then eventually to a walk, and then, finally, to a stop.

Chu Chu climbed back onto Mikoto's head from where she had fallen.

_Miss Mikoto! That was absolutely marvelous Alas, however, I'm afraid I appear to have ingested my panties in my surprise... Please, pray tell, was thou able to keepeth thine winnings?_

Mikoto's brow crinkled, feeling a little bit annoyed with her furry friend. "Chu-suke, why do you like underwear so much?!" Even as she asked this, she reached into her shirt and brought out one of the stolen bras to hand to the monkey on top of her head.

_Miss Mikoto! How couldst thou even question mine passion? Why, panties are clothing of the gods! Such succulent softness! Such divine craftsmanship! Why, I can remember a time when women wore not such delicateness against their skin, and let me advise thee, twas times dark indeed!"_

"You can remember when people didn't use underwear?" Mikoto blinked. "That's... that's got to be..." Mikoto tried to do some simple math in her head and failed miserably. "... a long time ago!" She picked the monkey up off of her head and held her in her palms, staring at her with wide amber eyes.

_Verily! Twas many seasons ago, indeed. I am very happy that undergarments have spread as far and wide over rolling hills and passed distant shores as they have in the intervening years!_

Mikoto's already massive eyes got even wider. "Chu-suke, how old are you?"

_Hmm... I'm afraid I know not the answer to that, Miss Mikoto. The seasons do blur after a while. I can, however, with pride advise thee that a cake tasted is a cake never forgotten, and I have sampled 74,382 birthday cakes in my days, though, I am afraid I am not sure who's day of birth those delectable pastries were intended to mark... _

Mikoto looked uncomfortable. "Can... can you not die too?"

_I am afraid I doth not quite understand thy query, Miss Mikoto. _The monkey mouse cocked her head to the side and gave Mikoto a questioning 'chu'.

Mikoto frowned. "I mean... mmm... I guess what I want to ask is... um... " She thought about it for a while before the right words came to her. "What's it like to live forever?"

_Whatever does thou mean? _

"I mean..." Mikoto scuffed her shoes against the ground uncomfortably. "I mean, you... you just keep going on and on, right? But the people around you, like, like, Hime, for example. You've been around since she was born, right? You remember when she was a baby, and now she's grown up, and eventually, she's gonna get old, and then... and then she's not always going to be there anymore, right? Won't you miss her?" Mikoto's brow crinkled. "I know I would miss Mai."

_Ah! Well, if tis mine mistress that thou speaketh of, I am not so sure that she is one that will move on at the end of this life like all the rest, but yes, I understand thy concern. Worry not, Miss Mikoto. So long as the sun rises in the morning and the moon at night, they shall return to thee. The bonds forged during one's time on earth are not so easily broken while off of it. The same lives, the same souls, forever intertwine, time and again, like helix strands stretching forward forever to eternity. No, worry not, for thine loved ones will return, and you shall have grand adventures again, slaying villainous frogs and winning beautiful undergarments! And until then, there are bananas! Bananas, as far as the eye can see! Oh, canst thou not see it, Miss Mikoto? _

Chu Chu leapt on top of Mikoto's head and pointed at the horizon with triumphant 'chu!', and Mikoto got the distinct impression she was supposed to go galloping towards it. She couldn't help but smile, feeling her heart lighten as she got down on all fours and bolted wildly onwards, down the path, and round a corner, swinging around a lamp post once, twice, and three times before flinging herself off with a loud laugh and running some more.

She startled many a classmate with her antics, leap-frogging over some, knocking over others, and narrowly avoiding others.

"Watch it, Mikoto!" Nao cried when the black-haired wild child appeared from out of nowhere and almost ran right through her. It was a last minute dodge that sent Nao spinning like a top instead, avoiding a head on collision.

"Sorry, Nao!" Mikoto said, turning back to laugh at her friend, though she did not stop her joyous journey.

It felt good to run. Everything felt right in the world when the wind was in her hair, and the sun was on her skin, and she could just run as far as her legs could carry her, to see what she would find when she stopped.

Her acrobatics had sent Chu Chu tumbling off her head, and the monkey mouse was now hanging onto one of her braids for dear life. She reached back and grabbed her, bringing her forward to stuff her into a more secure location - the breast pocket of her blazer jacket.

_A thousand gratitudes, Miss Mikoto!_

Mikoto smiled, even as she ran. By this time, she'd skipped off of the paths of the school entirely, and had made it into the forests, bouncing between the trees, sometimes even off of the tree trunks themselves, or swinging from the branches. "So, you're sure? That Mai will come back to me, Chu-suke? Promise?"

_Of course! She hast already done so many times, already, I reckon! With bonds as strong as the one between her's and thee's, this cannot be thine first lifetime together, Miss Mikoto! Why, she may have been a mother, or a sister, or a lover to you, many times before!_

Mikoto's eyes widened. "Really? You mean we were friends before?"

_Verily! Bonds as tight as thee and thine, will surely last for all eternity, even when comes the time for humanity to leave this planet and head for the stars! Surely, even then, on distant yellow stars, twinkling in this night sky, the soul of Miss Mai will come to intertwine with thee in fellowship again._

Mikoto couldn't help but beam. "That sounds like a lot of fun! I can't wait!"

Chu-suke was right, Mikoto decided. Mai was her most important person ever, and she knew she was very important to Mai too! So, of course, they'll always be friends! Mikoto just had to be patient, and that was gonna be hard, but, for Mai, of course, Mikoto could wait.

And it wasn't like they'd be apart right away either! Mai was strong and super healthy! They'd have at least 70 or 80 years together this time too! And hey! Maybe Mai would have kids! Maybe they could be friends too!

It was then that Mikoto got a phone call. Skidding to a halt, she answered her phone. "Hello?"

"Mikoto?!" It was Mai on the line. "Where are you?! People are telling me you fell off a 4th story balcony! Are you okay?"

Mikoto grinned. "Umph! Better than okay! I feel great! I'm going to have lots of fun with your kids!"

"... ?! Did you hit your head?!"

"I did!" Mikoto replied cheerily, "but I'm okay! I-" She was cut off when a shadow loomed over her. Her eyes went wide.

_Holy mother of all that is good and merciful! _Chu Chu gave a terrified 'chu!' and hid herself deeper down into Mikoto's blazer jacket pocket.

In front of her stood what looked like a two story tall cross between a helicopter, a crocodile and a body builder. The monster was ocean green in color, and had at least seven glimmering red eyes dotting its face. It saw Mikoto and snarled, making a hissing sound.

"Um… Mai?" Mikoto said into the phone. "I'll call you back. There's a really big Orphan in front of me right now."

* * *

_The hotel room is dark and still. _

_Presently, there is a soft click of the door opening, and the shuffling of footsteps, before the door clicks closed again. A single lamp is turned on, and a tawny haired woman can be seen. She puts her luggage on one of the two twin beds and dumps everything out. She stares uncomprehendingly at her personal effects for a long time – a computer, a camera, a cell phone, some clothing, a seashell pendant and a photo album. All she has to her name._

_Wordlessly, she steps out of her shoes, and removes her socks. She pulls her sweater over her head and discards it onto the floor. Her skirt, her bra, her panties soon follow suit. She moves into the bathroom, and sits down in the tub, letting the spray from the shower above drench her._

_She stays there for a very long time._

_Out on the hotel bed, the cell phone beeps once, twice, and three times, unanswered. Her voicemail message takes the call._

"_Hi! You've reached Kurusugawa Himeko. I'm not available to take your call right now, so please leave a message after the tone, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!"_

_*Beep!*_

_There is a long silence, before a hoarse voice finally speaks._

"_... pick up the phone, Himeko. Please."_

_Another long pause._

"_... please."_

_Another long pause._

"_... don't... don't do it like this, Himeko. Not... not like this."_

_Another long pause._

"_... please."_

_The fourth pause goes a bit too long, and the voice messaging software ends the call, thinking the message over. The communication goes to mailbox, to join the other eight similar messages left by this number._

_There is silence in the hotel room._

_And then the phone beeps again, with another call. This caller's voice is soft, and calm, but obviously worried._

"_... Himeko-chan? It's Tomoyo. I... I know it's none of my business, truly, but, I thought you should know that I've let Oogami-san know about... about what happened. We're all really worried about you, so, wherever you are, please, just... just let one of us know where you are and that you're alright, okay? Please. I'll talk to you soon-"_

_Even before this call ends, a third call angles to take its place. _

_This caller is very agitated. _

"_Himeko, pick up the goddamn phone, you hear me?! NOW!" There was a pause. "You're in Mahoroba, aren't you? We can come get you! Hell, even if you aren't in Mahoroba, we got you. Dammit, Himeko, don't make me have Souma send out the entire force after you, because, so help me god, you know I will! Ah hell, I don't even have to ask, he's halfway down to the station already! Come on, Himeko, pick up!" There was a loud sigh of frustration on the line. "You're in the bathroom, aren't you? Well, when you get out, call me back. Stop making us worry like this. Talk to you soon. Souma and I love you, Himeko. Don't forget that."_

_A while later, the tawny haired woman comes out of the bathroom, her hair damp, wearing a bathrobe. She picks up her phone and sits down in one of the chairs, facing the window. Pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs, she puts the phone on the end table, and on speaker to listen to the messages. _

_She squeezes her eyes shut tightly as she listens to the three new messages, messages so similar to the dozens she's already received from these same numbers over the last few days. _

_She reaches out and hesitates for a while, her thumb hovering over the buttons. _

_She punches in the number of the first caller, and her thumb hovers around the 'call' button for what feels like an eternity. Of all the numbers, she knows it is most important to respond to the first caller, to Juri, sweet Juri, poor Juri, and yet, she does not know if she should return the call or not._

_She does not want to hurt her anymore. She does not want to give her false hope. Bad enough that she had not the strength to refuse Juri's last embrace. Bad enough that she'd given in that night. Bad enough that Juri may have construed 'goodbye' to mean 'you may still have a chance...'_

_Although, with luck, the finality of those three words she'd left on the note could not be mistaken. _

_Three little words. _

'_She's the one.'_

_She had wondered, as she had written those words, if they were too cold to end two years together. _

_Would 'I'm so sorry' have been better? Or even, 'I loved you'? _

_No, she thinks. No. _

_Juri is a fighter and an ounce of hope is all she would need to rip her heart apart fighting for her, a losing battle. One she could never win. _

_She remembers having broken another's heart similarly before, ages ago, in high school, and at the time, she had not known how cruel she was being to him by returning his calls, by still being his friend. By still showing him kindness. It had taken him that much longer to get over her, because of her continued kindness and affection for him. If not for Mako-chan, she is quite certain Souma's heart would never have healed. _

_She does not want to do that to Juri. _

_But neither does Juri deserve this, being walked out on in the middle of the night, her messages unanswered. Perhaps she should let their friends know where she is, and let the news float back to Juri that way? Would that be kinder? But that does not seem right either..._

_She does not know what to do. Why doesn't she know what to do? Why doesn't she ever seem to know what to do? _

_Her thumb hovers around the 'call' button... but instead, she deletes the number she's entered, and puts the phone back down on the table. She has lost track of the number of times she has done this. Punch in Juri's number. Wait. Delete Juri's number. Wait. _

_She sits still for a very long time._

_Silence is best, she thinks. Solitude is best, she thinks. There is a certain sort of peace and closure in being cut off clean. She needs to give Juri time to get over her. And, she admits, she needs to give herself time too, to get over Juri, for Juri still has a powerful place in her heart too. _

_Eventually, the phone begins to ring again. Once, twice, thrice, and voice mail, via speaker._

_*BEEP!*_

"_Did you hear, did you hear? Have you heard the news?"_

_She sits up at this unexpected message and turns to stare at her phone._

"_Someone's ripping apart the universe! Someone's giving the universe and the gods, all 800 million of them, a giant middle finger! Is a Child the cause or the effect of the love between a woman and her most important person? If the Child is no longer a representation of love, but a representation of despair, then what happened to the relationship? You know what I think? I think, oh, crap, what the hey? I totally have the wrong number! Sorry about that!"_

_The tawny haired woman stares at her phone in disbelief, unable to comprehend what that last call had been about. A prank call, perhaps?_

_She almost jumps from her seat when the phone rings once more._

_There is something different about this call. _

_Even as she stares at her phone, she can tell that this call... this call is one she must take._

_Squeezing her hands into fists, she picks up the phone and finally answers it._

"_... hello?" _

_The person on the other line doesn't say anything._

_All she hears is someone swallowing, as though they are having a hard time speaking. "..."_

_And suddenly, she has a good idea of who could be on the line, though she doesn't know how they got this number._

_Her heart clenches. She tries to speak, but the words are lodged in her throat too, and she cannot get them out. She tries again. And again. And eventually, she manages to whisper, "...Chikane-chan...? Is that you?" _

_The person on the phone remains silent, neither confirming nor denying her identity. _

_They are both silent on the line, and Himeko knows she needs to says something, anything at all, even something stupid or mundane._

"_... I need some time." She finally whispers. "I'm sorry, Chikane-chan. I just need a little bit of tim-."_

"_Arisugawa-sensei," interrupts the caller on the line, her voice soft, and hesitant, and sad. So very sad._

_She freezes._

"_...Arisugawa-sensei," says the voice again, "... is a good person."_

_Her heart twists and squeezes, almost unbearably in her heart. "... she is." She whispers. "But you are too."_

"_... no." Say the voice, filled with regret. "No, I am not."_

_And then the line goes dead._

_Frantically, her heart racing, she hits 'redial', and 'redial' again, and once more, and again, and again, and again. The calls do not go through. _

'_The number you are calling, is outside of the service area. Please hang up and try again later.'_

_Himeko blinks very slowly, as she stares at her phone. And suddenly, even as she stares at it, it buzzes, signalling the arrive of a text message. The message is short:_

'_Do you want to remember?'_

_She stares at the message, confused, and disoriented. Frowning, she looks up, and out the window. The soft, festive lights of the amusement park that the hotel has a view of try to sooth her, to no avail, even as she continues to look at them for a long time as she contemplates._

_She does not notice when her photo album is quietly picked up from the bed, and spirited away. _

_She doesn't realize that it is gone, until the next morning, when she goes looking for it, and cannot locate it._

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The chapter is out earlier than expected because I forgot yesterday was a holiday! Yay! XD

Oh, Natsuki, how you could possibly think you were not gay from the start of this fic, I am not sure... =P

As a heads up, I think the next chapter will more properly be rated 'M'. I don't think the fic, overall, is M though, as, I think, the sheer volume of mature content vs not will make this fic fall back onto the T side. Still, I thought I should give folks a heads up about that.

And, to be perfectly transparent – one of the scenes is Shiznat, but the other one is Jurimeko. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But I feel like this is important. It's just... I feel like I'd be doing these characters I love a grave disservice if I don't even try to address the delicate matter raised in KnM canon that still bothers me to this day. :(

So, I'll apologize in advance if that is not your cup of tea. I think that scene is one of those, 'I just have to write this' scenes, even if no one wants to read it.

The next chapter should be out between April 10-April 13...

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Cow Calls

[HIMEKO is sitting in her hotel room, hideously depressed and staring out the windows at the amusement park. The phone rings beside her. She lets it go to voicemail.]

VOICEMAIL: Hi! You've reached Kurusugawa- Beep! [The caller has clicked 'go straight to voicemail']

CALLER: Moooou

HIMEKO: [Sweatdrops and stares at her phone. Hesitantly picks it up.] Who's this?

CALLER: Moooooou

HIMEKO: What is this? Some kind of sick joke?

CALLER: [Mooing ebbs to a soft, sinister whisper] ooooore...

HIMEKO: What?

CALLER: ... mooooooooore cooooooooooooowbeeeeeeell...

HIMEKO: ... [Hangs up and shivers]

* * *

OMAKE II: A Serious Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[There are no clips. Just JURI and HIMEKO standing in front of a black screen together, reading scripts.]

JURI: Next time, on _Revolutions_, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over... [she looks up from the script uncomfortably] Really? Seriously? We're going there?

[The CAMERA ANGLE nods up and down.]

JURI: Are you really sure that's a good idea? Do you not remember the reaction to 'Gala Revelations?' I mean, wow, if you haven't been lynched already... [She looks over at HIMEKO worriedly.]

HIMEKO: [Read the script with an expression half determined and half scared]... Um... I think... I think this might be important, Juri-chan. For me. Tough, but, important.

JURI: [Sighs] Well... alright. Then please stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 14 – 'Flashbacks'


	15. Chp 14 - Flashbacks

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 14 (Flashbacks)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

March 3, 2013 – March 9, 2013

Word Count: 9,700

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

Warning: This chapter should proooobably be rated closer to M than T.

* * *

In the middle of nowhere, a landscape devoid of everything except for jagged rocky outcrops and ominous, thick fog, eight, massive torii gates loomed out in the darkness, lighted only by the glow of the malevolent crescent moon swirling over top. The torii gates were carved from stone and numbered 1 through 8, with tops thick enough for full grown men to pace back and forth upon.

Two girls stood on top of the torii gates – the tawny-haired one holding a dark red naginata-like weapon on top of gate number five, while the blue-black haired girl with the long nodachi sword was currently standing on top of gate number seven.

Shizuru looked about her desolate surroundings and frowned. "Is this where you've been spending all your time these days, Chikane-san?"

"... quite a bit more than I've ever hoped to," Chikane admitted, a look of distaste on her face.

"No wonder your humour has been so poor of late. This place is not exactly a shining example of tranquility and zen. Why, it's even affected the quality of your penmenship," Shizuru said in disapproving tones as she held up a simple white envelope – the letter she had found on her desk this morning. "I take it this invitation is from you?"

Chikane's eyes flicked over to the letter, before flicking back to meet Shizuru's ruby gaze. She smiled, somewhat distantly. "Should I be flattered? I recall Natsuki-sempai once telling me that you receive so many written confessions, you've made it a habit not to respond to them unless the sender was courageous enough to put down their name."

Shizuru chuckled. "That is true, but, I suppose, I cannot be faulted for making exceptions for someone so beguiling I presumed them to be you, now can I?" She put the letter back in her blazer jacket pocket – not the student council president one, but one that just happened to be similar in color. Her voice grew serious. "Come back with me, Chikane-san," Shizuru said softly. "It's not too late."

Chikane's eyes cast downwards. "I'd like that very much, Shizuru-sempai," she admitted softly. "But I'm afraid that you will have to be the one to come with me."

Shizuru's gaze drifted over to the long sword that her friend - her opponent - was wielding. "Didn't you once tell me that your mother disapproved of swords?" She asked softly.

The blue-black haired girl's responding smile was sad. "... I can't see Okaa-sama approving of much I do these days."

There was silence in the air after that, regretful silence.

Shizuru frowned, and lifted her naginata-like weapon. "_Come with you_, hmm... " she said softly. "I suppose, if that is your wish, then who am I to refuse?"

The gauntlet thus thrown, Shizuru sprang towards Chikane, even as Take no Yamikazuchi roared in the background and lunged at Kiyohime.

* * *

Natsuki knew better than to let herself get distracted while on the road, especially when the rain was coming down as hard as it was, especially when their destination was still at least forty-five minutes away. It wasn't just her own life at risk either – Yuuki Nao's arms were holding her tightly around the waist and the younger girl was clinging to her back for shelter, for warmth, and for dear life. One wrong move, and they'd both be eating asphalt.

Still, she couldn't help herself. The tightness of Nao's arms around her reminded her so much of Shizuru's last embrace.

_"How can you ask me to go?" Natsuki cried. "Shizuru, Chikane's... Chikane's not well!" She would have said that their friend was completely out of her mind, but, somehow, her heart kept telling her that that wasn't necessarily true. What was true however, was how absolutely dangerous Himemiya Chikane was proving herself to be. "I can't just leave you here and go running off!"_

_Her girlfriend smiled comfortingly at her, and brushed a lock of hair that had fallen in Natsuki's agitation back behind the white gold hair clip. "I won't be alone, Natsuki. Most of us are staying here after all. But you know that you will be of most help with Midori-sensei, and Nao-san. What we need right now are answers to the riddles, and you, knowing the riddles the most thoroughly, would be best at uncovering those answers."_

_"Stop saying those things," Natsuki almost begged, hating the logic coming out from Shizuru's lips because she already knew those things to be true and really didn't need to have them repeated to her. She reached up to touch the hand at the side of her face, to hold Shizuru's palm to her cheek, wishing the other girl could feel the way her heart was clenching in her chest. "Everyone's already said that to me a dozen times already but you, you of all people should understand why I can't go."_

_The way Shizuru's eyebrows crinkled with gratitude as she swallowed back the lump in her throat told Natsuki that she did understand - completely - Natsuki's sentiments. And Shizuru showed Natsuki what she was feeling too, by stepping forward and catching Natsuki's lips with her own. _

_Natsuki wasn't ready to be mollified so bodily, and even considered struggling for a moment, but the warmth of her lover, the taste of her lips, the smell of her skin, was too much to resist, and she found herself wrapping her arms around Shizuru's neck and pulling her closer instead, even as Shizuru moved her arms down to hug Natsuki tightly around the waist._

_When they parted for breath, Natsuki kept her eyes closed, realizing she'd lost whatever edge she was hoping to use in convincing Shizuru into letting her stay._

_"You are not leaving me to death or slavery, Natsuki." Shizuru said softly, the promise in her words echoing the pledge of her kiss. "I belong to you. No one else. So go and return quickly, and know that we're all waiting for you to return, all of us, even Chikane. We'll stop her, and we'll keep her whole until you do."_

_"Well, keep yourself whole too," Natsuki said, frowning intensely, as she reached up and touched Shizuru's cheek. "Don't underestimate her, okay? Kiyohime's big, but Chikane's Child, or whatever that thing is, he's strong..." _

_Shizuru smiled gently, even as she nodded, and then tilted her head to kiss Natsuki's fingertips, before those fingers turned her face back, so Natsuki could kiss her again._

Natsuki frowned as a sudden gust of wind forced her bike to the side, and she had to struggle to keep them from tipping. She felt Nao panic a little at the sudden motion and the grip around her midsection tightened until it hurt. Between their helmets and the rain, there was no way Natsuki could have heard the redhead, but she could have sworn she'd heard her string together a long rope of colorful obscenity. Then one of Nao's arms left Natsuki's waist and Natsuki could feel her passenger smacking her roughly upside the back of her helmet.

Natsuki rolled her eyes. Honestly, if Nao was going to complain so badly about her driving, she really should have just ridden with Midori.

The biker looked a little behind her, and could see the auburn haired teacher just a little ways behind her, standing on top of Gakutenou, on the platform between the massive spinning wheels that made up his hind legs, even as his front legs galloped furiously. She was wearing a bright yellow rain jacket and pants, and had the sensibility to cover half her face with goggles, but the wind had blown the attached hood of the jacket off her head, so her long hair was trailing behind her, soaked.

Natsuki turned her eyes back onto the road, feeling sorry for the teacher, and even a little bit for Nao behind her. She was almost frozen herself, and she was in full gear. No wonder Nao had chosen to ride with her instead; at least she could huddle against Natsuki's back for warmth.

_Warmth._

_Heat. _

_Why was she so surprised to find how warm a body lying next to her own could be, especially when that body belonged to someone was fiery and as passionate as Shizuru was? Why was she so surprised to find how warm her own body could be, still flushed from release? How could they be anything but warm after love making so intense?_

_Had it been intense? Actually, Natsuki wasn't sure. It wasn't like she had a frame of reference to compare to, after all. Lying on her back, looking up at the ceiling she could have sworn was spinning uncontrollably just moments ago (or had that simply been her vision?), she blinked slowly, still dazed, and mesmerized that the world outside of pounding and shuddering and her body and Shizuru's touch existed at all._

_She turned to face Shizuru._

_Her girlfriend was lying on her side, facing her, one arm supporting her head, the other one tracing lazy circles around Natsuki's lower abdomen and giving her a fond smile. The ever present adoration and esteem that usually glittered so freely in those ruby depths were there, of course, but they shared space in Shizuru's eyes with dark passion, and heady desire, and bodily need, and Natsuki found herself wondering just how warm Shizuru's body could get._

_Rolling carefully onto her own side, Natsuki tenderly lowered her head to catch Shizuru's lips softly, pushing the older girl onto her back as she continued to roll her own body over top of the older girl to straddle her, careful to keep most of her weight on her legs, nestled against the sides of Shizuru's hips. She let her hands glide down the body of her girlfriend, her lover, her most important person. _

_The gala had already started; they were already running late._

_Natsuki decided to take her time anyway. _

_She let her lips meander away from Shizuru's swollen own to nibble along the older girl's jaw line, then, onto her throat. The vibrations from Shizuru's satisfied purring felt funny against Natsuki's mouth, and she couldn't help but smile, even as she continued to kiss her way downwards. She'd have to remember that Shizuru liked having her collar bone suckled._

_Just like how she'd have to remember that the flesh on Shizuru's side, just below her breasts, was also a delightfully sensitive place that could cause shudders to ripple across her lover's flank. _

_Shizuru made another noise in the back of her throat as her fingers dug encouragingly into Natsuki's scalp. She let her head roll backwards in pleasure, the action causing her back to arch a little off from the bed. Just enough to let Natsuki slip her hands underneath the other girl's torso and slide them upwards to, with a little bit of leverage, lift Shizuru upright off the bed, as Natsuki shifted her own weight back into a sitting position._

_Shizuru's eyes fluttered open, a little disoriented, before looking upwards to focus on Natsuki's own, and Natsuki found herself utterly swallowed in Shizuru's crimson gaze, curtained by her own long blue-black tresses falling downwards, dark with wild passion. Shizuru lifted a hand up to thread her fingers through Natsuki's hair, grasping a handful of it at the back of Natsuki's head, to pull Natsuki downwards, crushing their lips together hungrily._

_Things got a bit more intense after that._

_Somehow, their slow, gentle, love making suddenly took on an almost fearsome sense of urgency, like they just could not get enough of one another, like they could never get enough of one another, and Natsuki found herself almost fighting Shizuru – with nips and teeth, with nuzzles and caresses, with hard kisses that left both of them gasping – to pin the older girl back down again, so that she could keep exploring this wondrous body that was now *hers* (*hers*, and *no one* *else's*), the way she wanted to, the way Shizuru had just explored hers, the way she suspected Shizuru was far too aroused to appreciate, at least, for now, but would undoubtedly come to appreciate, in short order. _

_Gasping. They were both gasping, even as Natsuki finally had Shizuru back down on the bed, holding the tawny haired girl's hands above her head by the wrists, on the pillows. And then Natsuki let those wrists go and kissed Shizuru deeply again, and a moment later, could feel those hands on her face once more, cupping her cheeks. _

_They took only a moment longer to rest their foreheads against one another, and then, Shizuru whispered, so softly, so throatily with lust, that Natsuki could barely hear her._

_ "... Natsuki...*please*..." _

_And Natsuki realized she might have enjoyed herself at her lover's tortured excitement for a little too long. She slid her hands down Shizuru's body, and Shizuru shivered with anticipation. She was already very ready, very aroused, from the time she had spent attending to Natsuki's own needs earlier, and Natsuki was somewhat amazed and fascinated by how slick her lover was, for all that she *still* felt like she really hadn't yet had the time to explore the tawny girl's body the way Shizuru had done for her._

_For a moment, just a brief moment, Natsuki panicked when she was reminded that this was Shizuru's first time too, as she met a hint of resistance inside the slick heat. Shizuru made a noise that was half in pain, and half enthralled, and, after that brief hesitation, Natsuki realized that Shizuru was letting her know exactly what to do, even without the use of actual words in instruction. _

_Tentatively at first, and then with a little more boldness, Natsuki navigated her way through Shizuru's pleasure, and was rewarded when Shizuru gasped out of their kiss, throwing her head back as her body arched._

_"Na...! Natsu...!" _

Natsuki swerved wildly when a blowing leaf smacked into her visor. That time, both she and Nao screamed, and it was nothing short of a flat out miracle that they didn't become little bloody smears on the road to be run over by Gakutenou behind them.

Nao beat furiously on the back of Natsuki's helmet, and Natsuki could just imagine the younger girl almost hysterically screaming, 'the road, you idiot! Keep your mind on the road!'

Miraculously, after a few more minutes, the rain began to let up, and by the time they reached their destination, the small coastal town of Marohoba, the road was dry, and the skies were cloudy but beginning to clear.

They stopped at the first gas station in town, where Nao practically sprang off the motorcycle, and ripped her helmet off, her eyes ablazed with fury and indignation. She was absolutely drenched in her hoodie, leather jacket, and blue jeans, and her teeth were chattering fearsomely, but her body was evidently limber enough to execute a drop kick to the side of Natsuki's head, punting her right off the bike after the driver had pushed the kick stand down.

Natsuki sprang up to her feet and ripped her own helmet off. "What the hell, Nao?! What was that for?!"

"Stop fucking thinking about Fujino while you DRIVE!" Nao screamed, eye twitching furiously. "We could have DIED!"

Natsuki flushed a bright red. "How did you-?!"

"What ELSE would you have been thinking about?!" Nao continued to rant, throwing her hands up in the air, even as she savagely ripped some paper towels out of the dispenser and tried unsuccessfully to dry herself off. "Blessed Jesus, there is a time and a place, Kuga!"

_"Natsuki, where the hell have you been?!" Mai shouted on the phone so loudly that Natsuki had to jerk her head away to save her eardrum. "An orphan showed up! A massive one! Mikoto came across it in the forest, and started to fight it, and she's been able to summon her claymore and Miroku too!"_

_"What?!" Fumbling off of Shizuru's bed, Natsuki desperately tried to find her underwear and put it on while still on the phone. Shizuru just looked at her, somewhat amused and bewildered by what had lit such a fire under her ass. "Is Mikoto okay? Are they still fighting?"_

_"No, they've finished, but, Natsuki, Mikoto didn't take down the orphan alone! Chikane was there too, and so was Groundskeeper Fumi, and, oh, Natsuki, I don't like this one bit! I don't like this at all!" _

_"Mai, calm down, and start from the beginning," Natsuki hissed, now trying to throw some pants on. Shizuru had to actually help her into her clothes, as she was so riled up she couldn't tell the difference between the left leg and the right leg of her jeans with most of her attention still on the phone with Mai. _

_"Her Child is HUGE, Natsuki!" Mai cried. "He's got to be the same size as Kagutsuchi, and he... he doesn't look right! His face is all twisted and skeleton like, and after they finished with the Orphan, I don't really know what happened, but Mikoto said Chikane's child turned his weapon – it's a bow and arrow – onto Miroku. She thinks Chikane might have attacked Miroku if Fumi hadn't stopped her!"_

_"Mai, we're on our way," Natsuki cried. "Hang in there!" Finally ending the call, Natsuki looked over at Shizuru, who had managed to get completely dressed already, and whose face was a mask of grim worry. "It's Chikane," Natsuki breathed, feeling her heart sink into her stomach. "Mai said she's tried to attack Mikoto." _

If Midori hadn't pulled up on Gakutenou (and dismissed the Child quickly before the gas station attendant could see him), Natsuki and Nao might have killed each other. As it was they had both grabbed each other's cheeks and were pulling viciously. They didn't let each other go until Midori showered them with a spray of cold water as she took her goggles off and shook out her mass of long, pointy, waterlogged hair. "Wow, that was some ride, wasn't it? Remind me to inquire about the non-convertible option next time."

All three Hime could hear a disembodied whine from Midori's child. The teacher laughed, even as she looked up into the sky. "Just kidding, Gakutenou! Unless you've got like, a 'sedan' mode or something. Then I'm not."

"Please, can we not just get a car?" Nao asked, taking off her jacket and trying to wring it out. "Damn it, I chose to leave Fuuka because I didn't want to die or be maimed again, you know."

Natsuki visibly flinched as the redhead's thoughtless words cruelly reminded her of those they'd left in danger's place, but Nao wasn't apologetic. "Oh, don't get your panties in a bunch," Nao snapped. "Julia's 1/5th the size of monsters like Kagutsuchi and Kiyohime. There's a big difference in the survival probabilities between me and Fujino or Tokiha."

While the redhead was likely right in her assessment, that still didn't make Natsuki feel any better about the circumstances of their leaving.

_"I'm going," Natsuki said hesitantly, finding it hard to meet Shizuru's gaze. She swallowed the lump down in her throat. Ittekimasu._

_"Come back safely," Shizuru responded. And she tilted her head up to kiss Natsuki on the forehead. Itterashai._

_"You too." Natsuki gave Shizuru's hand a tight squeeze. _

_And then Natsuki swung her leg over her bike, and waited for Nao to get on. _

_Midori gave her a thumbs up atop Gakutenou and then the three of them were off._

_As they drove down the street, and then another, and then another, Natsuki heard a terrific, horrifyingly familiar screech. Skidding to a halt that also turned her bike around 90 degrees, Natsuki stared back in the direction they had come from, flipping her visor up for a better view, and felt her heart drop into her stomach as she thought she saw Kiyohime's form appear in the distance, mouths on all six heads open, teeth bared, and hissing. _

_The image of Kiyohime didn't stay for long. Within the span of an eye blink, the Child then wavered, and disappeared, as though it were never there in the first place._

_Natsuki started in horror at where Kiyohime had disappeared._

_"Shizuru..." She whispered, swallowing. _

_Revving her engine, she started to head back in the direction they'd come from, but Nao grabbed her shoulder and shook her roughly, flipping her visor up to speak. "Get a hold of yourself, Kuga. We have to go now. It's okay. Fujino knows what she's doing. And you are not going to be any help to her if you go after her with her head half baked. Let's go."_

_Natsuki clenched her fists. "But-"_

_"Don't make her have to worry about you too," Nao snapped._

_And Natsuki grit her teeth. Pushing her visor back down, she reluctantly turned the bike around._

"Hmm... I think Oogami Shrine isn't actually that much further away," Midori said, taking her backpack off of her shoulders, and then opening it up to pull out a map. "Yeah, there it is. It should only be about another thirty five more minutes, and at least the rain's let up."

"It's closer than that, Midori-chan!" Came a happy voice.

The girls all looked up and saw a good looking man with tousled brown hair smiling at them; he'd come out from the gas station.

Midori's eyes brightened. "Yuki-chan! What are you doing here?"

Morimoto Yukihito laughed. "Well, your email sounded so urgent, I thought I'd go meet you to welcome you, and was just stopping for gas. Didn't realize you'd get here so soon." He looked over Natsuki and Nao and nodded in greeting, the two students returning the motion. "Hey, how'd you get here anyway? Don't tell me you balanced all three of you on that motorcycle?"

Midori laughed. "Nah, our butts aren't that small. But if you've got a car, I am definitely gonna let you pick us up!" She looked back at Nao and Natsuki, who didn't seem all that pleased with her, and amended her statement. "Erm, well, I mean, you can pick me up. Those two are still jail bait."

Yukihito chuckled, and held up his left hand to show a wedding band. "Sorry, Midori-chan, but I don't think the husband would be too pleased if I did that! He's open minded, but not _that_ open minded."

"O-ho!" Midori gave a cluck of approval and grabbed Yukihito's hand to look at his ring. "When and where did this happen?"

"Just earlier this year," Yukihito replied gamely. "Did it in a quaint little tourist town in Canada. Oh! I'll tell you all about it on the way! Shall we go?"

* * *

Chikane swung and if Shizuru hadn't flipped back at the exact moment that she had, it was likely she would have lost her head.

Shizuru frowned.

_Or would I have?_

They'd been fighting and parrying each other's strikes for a while now, and Shizuru could not shake the distinct sensation that her opponent was pulling her punches. She herself, was, of course, doing the same. Every cut, very slash, every thrust was deliberate, on Chikane's part, too deliberate. She was broadcasting her moves very clearly and very evidently, and Shizuru could feel like the other girl was simply going through the motions, like she didn't actually want to hurt her.

It was a curious sensation, Shizuru thought, since she knew she was doing the same. It was almost like the Festival again, when she had fought against Natsuki in their final battle. Bullets had flown everywhere, and Shizuru's whip like glaive had destroyed many things, and yet, neither she nor Natsuki had gotten a scratch on the other, until the very end, when Natsuki had ordered Duran to take out Kiyohime. And even then, in each other's arms, with the air cleared between them, Shizuru had felt more peace than pain.

Shizuru frowned. She tried to read into Chikane's movements. She couldn't shake the feeling that the blue-black haired girl, her friend, her _good_ friend, was trying to tell her something with her sword that wasn't along the lines of 'I-want-to-cut-you-up-into-little-pieces.'

In fact, if anything, the way the sword wielder was moving, the slips that kept entering her guard, the way each move was just a little too slow, or just a little over-reached, it was almost like Chikane was asking, no _begging_, for her to end this.

Shizuru bit her lip. That was not something she was willing to do.

She had promised Natsuki that she'd keep Chikane safe and whole, after all.

So they danced, and feigned against one another, and in her own movements, Shizuru let Chikane know that she intended to do (or not do).

"Enough of this," Chikane finally hissed, evidently getting Shizuru's unspoken message. "Get serious, Shizuru-sempai. Do you know what happens if you do not defeat me? If I turn you, and Kiyohime, onto my side?"

"Humour me," Shizuru said. "What happens?"

"Then you lose Natsuki-sempai." Chikane said, and even as she said this, she let go of her sword, and it disappeared into nothingness before it even hit the ground. A ball of light appeared in Chikane's hand, and winked into the shape of a bow. Chikane brought it up, and pulled the string back. She looked up at where Take no Yamikazuchi was dueling Kiyohime, in the distance behind Shizuru. Even as she looked at the two monstrous forms, an arrow appeared in her bow, and began to glow red.

"No, it's not that you lose her." Chikane amended. "It's more like you never meet her in the first place. Your prized relationship, with your most important person. It never happens in the first place at all. She becomes nothing to you, and yet, you will remember what might have been, what _should_ have been. Is that despair something you can stand?"

Shizuru's eyes narrowed.

Chikane began to loose her arrow.

Shizuru lashed out with her naginata. The pole extended into a whip and flung out at Chikane, the blade catching her in the middle.

Chikane gave a cry of pain, and her arrow lost its red tinge, returning to blue-green. She lost her hold on it, firing it, and it flew straight into Shizuru's leg.

* * *

Moving out of the visiting professor's residences proved surprisingly fast. The last of the boxes were packed a couple hours sooner than Juri thought she would finish, so she had a while to wait before the movers would show up to take it all.

She supposed it was a mercy that she hadn't moved very much of her things permanently to Fuuka yet. Most of her things fit into eight or ten boxes and several garment bags.

Himeko's items had only taken half a box.

The thought of her… (her what? Her girlfriend? Her ex?)... the thought of Himeko made Juri's heart clench.

_Get used to it, Juri,_ she told herself. _It's only going to get worse. _

Himeko had barely kept anything here after all that Juri had to sort through. That was a slightly different story back in Tokyo. She really didn't relish the task awaiting her back in their home there. Not that Himeko had that much more stuff there either, but every single thing she owned (since she owned so little), had some sort of special meaning or significance, and Juri had bought most of that for her...

_Oh gods, I am going to need a drink. _

Heading to the kitchen, she unpacked a bottle of wine, and uncorked it. She considered drinking straight from the lip of the bottle, but, at the last minute, decided to unpack a glass.

Just because she was heartbroken didn't mean she was a barbarian, after all.

Heading over into the living room, she flicked the built-in sound system on for one last listen. She had enjoyed this feature of the unit, and would probably get something similar installed into her home in Tokyo.

After a moment, piano music came on.

Juri frowned as she nursed her wine. She didn't recognize the song, but it suited her mood just fine. Despite knowing better than to let it do this, her mind drifted back to happier times with Himeko.

_The music playing in the background was soft, and they were sitting at a comfortable distance from the fire so that the flames were gently warm against her skin, though, not as warm as Himeko was. They were kissing, their mouths exploring each other's with a pleasant urgency they'd experienced many times before in the last year since they'd started their relationship, though they had yet to surmount beyond this. _

_Himeko broke off the kiss but continued to hold Juri's head against her own, breathing deeply. Juri could recognize the telltale signs of anxiety from her girlfriend, and though the dull ache inside her lower abdomen protested, she moved to pull her hands back out from under Himeko's sweater, as she had brought herself to do several times before._

_Curiously, this time, Himeko stopped her, removing one of her hands from Juri's face to press it against Juri's own, overtop of her sweater, staying the hand where it was, lightly grasping her breasts. _

_Juri raised an eyebrow. "... Himeko?" She asked softly._

_Himeko swallowed, obviously nervous. "... don't stop." Himeko said softly. "Juri-chan, whatever I say, don't... don't stop, okay? Don't... don't let me run away again. I'm ready. I'm... I'm a little scared, but... I'm ready."_

_Juri frowned, even as she pulled back so she could look her girlfriend in the eyes. She was only able to look into those conflicted lilac pools for a moment before Himeko cast them away from her. Juri's frown deepened – it was so obvious when Himeko lied. "How can you be ready if you're scared?"_

_Himeko didn't answer right away. She closed her eyes for a moment, gathering courage, before reopening them and finally turning to look Juri in hers. Those lilac depths remained complicated. "Juri-chan, we've been together for a year already," she said softly, "and neither of us are young anymore. I'm ready. I want... I want you to make love to me. I want... I want to make love to you." She blushed something fierce. "So please, don't... don't let me run away anymore."_

_She gazed at her girlfriend in appraisal, surprised and maybe a little excited that the other woman finally wanted to take this step. Nodding, Juri gave Himeko a shy smile. "Alright," she promised softly, before moving her head forward to capture Himeko's lips once again, the small woman digging her fingers into her hair._

_A little while later, Juri got off the couch, and offered Himeko her hand. Himeko stared at the outreached fingers, and seemed to hesitate for another moment, before reaching out and grasping Juri's fingertips, following her into the bedroom. _

Juri took a deep, shuddering breath, and put her wine glass down on the coffee table. She ran her hand through her flame colored locks and tried to keep it together. Despite this, however, she found her eyes looking over at the one box stacked on the top of all the other boxes by the door.

_'Don't go there. Don't go to it. Don't do it. Don't open the box. Stop it. Stop opening the box. Stop this now, Juri. Don't pull back the tape. Don't do it. Stop pulling the- Fuck.'_

Standing in front of the boxes, Juri found her arms shaking as she ripped the packing tape off and threw open the lid. With trembling hands, she pulled the garment bag protecting the red evening gown out and then practically ripped the dress out of the bag to cling to it, sinking to the ground as she pressed it tightly to her chest.

_Himeko was silent as Juri pulled her sweater over her head, mussing up her long, tawny colored locks. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she looked up at Juri with worried anticipation in her eyes, even as Juri pulled her own shirt over her head, and then crawled onto the bed on top of her lover, their bodies touching as Juri gently pushed Himeko down into the satin sheets._

_They kissed again, and for a while, Himeko was calm. But she murmured nervously against Juri's mouth when Juri unclasped her bra, and slipped her skirt and panties off._

Juri struggled to keep a steady breath as she simply held Himeko's dress against herself, burying her face against it. She thought she could still faintly detect the perfume Himeko had been wearing that night from the soft, silky fabric.

_Despite the woman's earlier words, it was painfully, obviously, clear that she was __**not**__ ready._

_Himeko swallowed nervously, blinking several times._

_"See, the thing about puppies? Um, about, about, shiba-inu puppies? They... they're kinda mischievous, so, so, you have to really, um, look after them closely. Um. If you don't, they'll... they'll run away, and they don't know they're running away. They don't know that they're causing trouble. Um. They wouldn't want to cause anyone trouble, um, right. Because... they're just puppies, and you know, just... just puppies, who don't know any better. They don't really know what they're doing, right? How... how could they know? How could they know..."_

_Juri stopped what she was doing, and looked up at Himeko confusedly. Himeko was looking straight up at the ceiling, but when Juri tried to move her hands away, the tawny haired woman shook her head ever so slightly._

_Himeko's words came back to Juri. 'Don't... don't let me run away again.'_

_Frowning and unsettled, none the less, Juri continued._

_So did the babbling. _

_"... but, I mean, I guess, I suppose, if they do cause trouble, then... then the only thing to do is to punish them for it, right? To... to let them know that they did wrong, so... so they don't do it again... even if they don't really know what they did wrong, because... you know... they're just puppies... "_

_Himeko licked her lips. She looked down, for a moment, and then quickly looked back up, biting her lip. She blinked several times in rapid succession._

_"But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that they don't know, because, you know, even if they're just playing... um... if... if they do get out of the yard, you... you have to look for them right away, you know? Because... because if you don't... um... they could get in trouble. They could even get in traffic accidents, and, well, nobody wants that... right? So... so, you have to... to scold them. Right. Scold them. And make sure they don't leave the safety of the yard again, right? Because... because... well, what if they're not lucky? Right? I mean, what if they're not lucky, and... and it's traffic they run into, instead of rose bushes, and... and you can't let them do that... you have to punish them... so... so... they don't end up in traffic... because, because it won't always be rose bushes, right? Because... because they won't always find... find rose bushes... so... so you won't always be able to... to catch up to them... so... so instead of... of a meeting... a meeting that could change... change your whole life... they... they could get run over instead... so... so you have to... to protect... to... protect... them... even if that means... even if... if that... if that means... even if that means... means... you... you... you have to... to hurt... to hurt..."_

_Himeko got very, very quiet after that, her breath hitching in her throat as she squeezed her eyes tight and just let her body convulse._

It took a while, but eventually, Juri calmed down. Swearing softly to herself, she stood up on unsteady feet, and tried to put the dress back on the hanger to put back in the garment bag. It didn't work, and for a few minutes, she couldn't figure out what was wrong with her that she couldn't even accomplish such a simple task.

It took her a while to realize that she'd actually damaged the dress, quite irrevocably. The left strap was ripped up beyond repair.

Unwilling to accept that she couldn't fix the stupid dress, Juri went looking for a stapler.

_Juri really, *really* wasn't sure if she was supposed to stop or not. _

_She couldn't shake the disturbing sensation in the back of her mind that her lover's babbling wasn't just caused by the nervousness of virginity, that it was actually a protective response mechanism to something... something buried deep inside Himeko's psyche._

_Something... about being punished... for things she did not understand..._

_Truth be told, whatever that something was, Juri wasn't sure how she was supposed to handle it._

_Yet Himeko had asked her to keep her tethered to the moment, no matter what happened, so Juri found herself bound to do as her beloved asked. _

_She kissed Himeko timidly on the shoulder. "Did I hurt you?"_

_Himeko was turned away from her, and silent. It was pretty obvious to Juri that Himeko was trying her absolute damndest to keep her tears hidden from Juri's view, but that only served to tie her stomach up into even tighter knots. For a while, a long while, Juri just held onto Himeko, unsure of what to do, and wondering why something as beautiful as an honest act of love and desire could bring such acute anguish to the other woman, but, of course, there was no way she could ask Himeko that._

_After a while, Himeko stopped trembling, and took a long, deep breath. Then, she rubbed her eyes, and then rolled over to give Juri a hug. Juri could still feel slight shivering coming from Himeko, but at least it wasn't as bad as before. _

_"No, you didn't hurt me, Juri-chan." Himeko said softly. Her voice sounded so confused. "It... it... didn't hurt at all."_

_Juri frowned. Himeko was horrible at lying, absolutely dismal at it. That Juri could not detect even a hint of a falsehood in the tawny haired woman's words told her that Himeko was not lying, that Juri hadn't hurt her, but it was also clearly obvious that, for whatever reason, Himeko had also been convinced that it should have._

_They laid against each other for a long while after that. Still. It was clear that Himeko had a lot on her mind._

_And then, unexpected, Himeko gave Juri a shy smile (after wiping away the last of her tears), and again, Juri could not detect any dishonesty in that expression – just confusion, and maybe a little bit of wonderment, and awe. _

_"It was... it was good." Himeko said softly, as though she wouldn't have thought that possible. "It was really... good."_

_Pushing down that perturbed sensation in the back of her mind, Juri hid her own discomfort a bit more successfully than her girl friend had been able to accomplish with a sardonic smile. But she still bit back the quip on her tongue 'should I be feeling happy with the compliment? Or insulted that you were so doubtful?' because, frankly, she didn't know if she wanted the answer. _

It was the farthest thing away from an elegant repair job, but somehow Juri managed to get the dress to stay on the hanger (by forcibly stapling the damn thing to it), and shoved the dress back in the garment bag. Hopefully Tomoyo or someone else at Miracles could salvage it or something. She went to put the garment bag back in the box when she spied something she had completely not been expecting to find.

Himeko's photo album.

Juri blinked at the item, flabbergasted. She was quite certain she hadn't seen the photo album in the box earlier, and she'd done the packing personally.

_'... when did this end up in here?'_ Juri wondered, even as she put the dress back down to pull the worn book out of the box. She stared at it in wonder, and gently ran her fingers down the cover, tracing over the groves long left there by Himeko's own fingers.

Dimly, she was aware that the music – piano – was still playing in the background, moody and melancholic.

_She'd been content to just hold Himeko. She really had been. After Himeko's... reaction, she was quite certain that her girlfriend wouldn't be ready for any more (and, really, Juri wasn't sure if *she* was either), so she really hadn't been expecting it at all when Himeko removed her head from where she'd tucked it under her own chin. Propped up on her own elbows as the tawny haired woman was, Juri had to look up at Himeko and found her vision filled with soft, amethyst eyes, looking at her with a sense of curious appraisal and hooded eye wonder she hadn't seen in those lilac depths before. _

_It sent a shiver down her spine. _

_"It's okay, Himeko," Juri lied with a smile. "You don't have to..."_

_Himeko blushed. "But I... I want to." She said, cheeks still blushing, even as she hesitantly reached out and rested her fingers on one of the sensitive tips of Juri's breasts, and then nudged her finger *just* *so*, sending fireworks of need shooting down between Juri's legs. _

_Juri almost flinched. _

_It had been so *long*._

_Himeko's eyes widened a little, and then the corners of her lips turned shyly upward, transforming the look of surprise on her mouth into one of shy delight. _

_Now Juri couldn't help but feel the heat rise in her own cheeks._

_"O-Oi," she said, starting to feel so aroused she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. "Himeko, wait, I-" Her lover silenced her with a kiss._

Juri sat down heavily in the chair again. She kept caressing the photo album, suddenly nervous to open it, though she couldn't understand why. The music kept playing in the background, and Juri couldn't help but wonder why it sounded so damn familiar.

Summoning up her courage, Juri opened the cover of the photo album.

_"Uuungh!" Juri cried, clutching her lover's head to her chest as she climaxed, the force of it sending her back arching off the bed, even with the added body weight on top of her. She stayed there for a while, before collapsing back down into the sheets, gasping for breath._

_Himeko rested her head on Juri's chest silently, also breathing deeply. Eventually, she craned her head up so that their eyes could meet each other's once more, and Himeko was blushing again._

_"... thank you, Juri-chan," Himeko said softly._

_Juri smiled weakly. "Why are you thanking me? I feel like I should be the one thanking you."_

_The tawny haired woman only smiled shyly back, and rested her head on her flame haired lover's chest once more. _

_"I think I just... really needed to see... to see you... like that," Himeko finally said, hugging Juri tightly. "I don't know... I don't know what I was so... so apprehensive about."_

_The tawny haired woman's confession brought a frown to Juri's face, but tucked under her chin as she was, Himeko couldn't see it._

_Juri thought back to Himeko's babbling, and the creepy, unsettled feeling of unease it had prompted in the back of her mind. She kissed the top of Himeko's head and decided not to tell her about it. _

_She suspected her lover didn't even know what she'd been saying._

Juri's eyes went wide as she stared at the photos. She had seen these pictures before – Himeko had shown them to her before, of course. Her memory told her they had been pictures of nothing – slightly out of focus pictures with no one in them.

Those pictures were no longer of no one now; they were fully occupied.

With a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach, Juri flipped through the album, and found pages and pages full of pictures of Himemiya Chikane, looking happier than she'd ever seen the girl before.

Here the girl was, sitting under a tree, reading a book.

There she was again, wearing a froofy apron and whisking something white and fluffy while looking over her shoulder at the camera.

_How is this possible?!_ Juri thought to herself, her mind blown, and completely bewildered.

The pictures were old – obviously old. They weren't even taken with a digital camera. The blue-black haired girl was wearing a maroon school uniform in most of the pictures, though in some of them, she wore normal clothes – like the one where she was playing the violin, an expression of serenity on her face.

Juri's hands froze as her eyes fell onto one of the last pictures.

It was a picture of a teenaged Himeko smiling joyously at the camera, wearing that same maroon school uniform of Ototachibana Acadamy. Holding Himeko in her arms, her chin resting on top of Himeko's head, was Himemiya Chikane, also smiling happily, eyes sparkling with fondness and contentment and looking exactly the same age as Himeko was.

The book fell out of Juri's hands and clattered noisily to the floor. She looked up at the ceiling in complete incomprehension, eyes wide but not really seeing anything.

She stayed that way for a very long time, until several things suddenly clicked into her mind at the same time.

The first fact was that she finally recognized the music she'd been listening to for the last little while. She had heard it during that Board of Director's meeting; it was Himemiya Chikane's music.

The second fact was that Himemiya Chikane was *_not*_ the other woman.

Juri buried her head in her hands.

_*She*_ was.

Juri stayed that way a very long time, with her head in her hands. She didn't know what to do, or how it was possible, or why it felt so...

_"Himeko, why do you travel so much? What are you looking for in all these places?"_

_"... someone special. Just for me."_

... so inevitable.

_'She's the one.'_ Himeko's note had read.

Her phone rang. She let it go to voicemail.

It rang again. And again.

Finally, Juri picked up the phone. "What?!" She snarled.

"J-Juri-san?" Came a soft, male voice she hadn't heard in a while.

Juri blinked. "Miki?"

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" Asked the former child prodigy (now out and out genius) she's gone to school with.

Juri was very silent as she warred with herself. Finally, she let out a deep breath through her nostrils. "No, you're not." She finally said. "I'm just... I'm just having a rough day. What's going on, Miki? It's not every day you call."

"Yes, well, my apologies, Juri-san," Miki said. "I should call more often but, I got a call from Touga-sempai. Do you remember him?"

Juri frowned. "Touga?" Of course she remembered him. She hadn't spoken to the man who had been student council president while she had been treasurer in high school since she'd graduated. "What about him?"

"I think he would have called you directly but he didn't have your number. He's Headmaster at Ohtori Academy and, well, something's happened that's made national news; they found a body on campus recently. A body that's been there for 16 years."

Juri's eyes widened. "16 years?" She echoed. Her heart stopped. "Miki, is it...?"

"It's looking more and more like it is, yes." Miki replied, pain evident in his voice.

Neither of them were able to say the girl's name, though they were both thinking of her.

Juri's heart squeezed. The image of a pink haired girl with eyes as clear as the ocean meeting the sky came to her mind's eye.

She couldn't remember the girl's name.

Why couldn't she remember the girl's name?

* * *

Breathing.

There was a lot of heavy breathing, and panting, signs of great exertion, in the desolate, middle-of-nowhere landscape with eight torii gates.

Presently, two girls were sitting, back to back, upon the sixth gate. Both their eyes were closed.

Chikane was resting with her knees pulled up almost to her chest, her arms wrapped around her stomach. Beads of sweat dripped down her face, and she was gasping for breath. Her Fuuka school uniform (just the necktie, shirt and skirt, actually; she hadn't worn the jacket) was ripped and torn in several places, and there were numerous bruises and cuts and scrapes all over her long, formerly porcelain legs. Ominous, dark redness was pooling out under her arms where she held her midsection, staining the sleeves of her shirt.

Shizuru leaned her back against Chikane's back. One of her legs were also up, the other one (the foot missing a shoe) dangling over the side of the torii gate, with a glowing blue-green arrow embedded in her thigh, just above her knee. The blade of her dark red naginata-like weapon was embedded several inches into the top of the torii gate, the handle sticking up in the air at a slight angle. Perspiration also dripped from her face as she breathed deeply, and her clothing was also ripped and revealing in many places. She rolled her head backwards, resting it on Chikane's shoulder, exposing her throat. As her head fell back, a trickle of blood crept down out of her hair line, down her temple, and dripped past her ear.

In the background, their bottom halves obscured by the fog, Take no Yamikazuchi was completely caught in the coils of Kiyohime's necks, though his monstrous fists had crushed one, and was tightly holding onto two others. They didn't move, locked in this deadly embrace.

The blue-green arrow in Shizuru's thigh flickered once, twice, and then disappeared, leaving a burn mark where it had pierced her skin. When this happened, Shizuru gave a grunt of pain, and then opened her crimson eyes, faintly glowing in the moonlight, and looked out the corner of them.

At the same time, Chikane opened her own brightly glowing and dully mat yellow ones, also swivelling them to the side to regard the tawny haired head resting on her shoulder.

Shizuru spoke first, her voice hoarse. "... Are you doing alright back there?"

It took Chikane a while to respond. "Yes." She finally managed, even as the red from her tummy continued to stain the sleeves of her shirt. And then, she added, "Shizuru-sempai, you are _insane_."

Through her hard breathing, Shizuru managed a smile. "Coming from you, Chikane-san, that's pretty bad." Somehow, she managed a chuckle.

Now Chikane managed a wry smile.

They were interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing.

Shizuru raised an eyebrow, but none the less, she sat upright, allowing Chikane to sit up a little with a grimace, and reach into the pocket of her skirt to bring out her phone. Chikane held the phone to her ear. "Yes?"

Shizuru frowned, and moved her head closer to Chikane's to try to hear the conversation.

A man's voice could be heard on the line. He sounded a little amused. "Fascinating. And just what is going through your mind right now, hmm? Besides Obsidian's ranting and raving, I'm sure."

Chikane grimaced, as she expended some energy to heal the cut on her abdomen. "Isn't that for me to know and for you to find out?"

The man on the line chuckled. "Well, I suppose it remains to be seen whether I care enough to." He paused. "Give my regards to Fujino-san."

And then, he hung up.

Shizuru frowned when Chikane slid the phone back into her pocket. "Who was that?"

Chikane was silent, as she gathered her concentration to heal her wounds. "... my father." She said darkly. "He wanted to say hello."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

*sigh* I really wrestled with whether to address the KnM assault in this fic from Himeko's sort-of-not-quite-remembered-point-of-view. I didn't know if I could pull it off. And then I watched Utena's, "The Prince that Runs Through the Night" _again_, and thought that, even if I couldn't, I had to try (and that scene ended up being heavily influenced by that episode, as those of you who are familiar with Utena may be acutely aware). So hopefully that was, um, creepy, but, okay. Mrrphg. -_-

I really don't know if Yukihito is gay or not, in canon, but, he feels a lot like a nice gay boy to guubear and I, so, there we go. And apparently, Canada legalized gay marriage in 2005, so Yukihoto really could have gotten married if this fic took place a few months after Mai Hime first aired. XD! Wow! Why does it still feel like that happened yesterday, rather than 8 years ago?

Next chapter should be out between April 16-April 20 (really unlikely to be early this time).

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: Yay, Transformers!

[NATSUKI and SHIZURU are running, hand in hand, desperately trying to get away from some UNSEEN ASSAILANT. NATSUKI is a little further ahead than SHIZURU. Suddenly, out of nowhere, GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY pops out from the earth and swallows NATSUKI whole.]

NATSUKI: AAAH!

SHIZURU: Natsuki!

[SHIZURU desperately tries to pull NATSUKI out of GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY, but fails. Totally awesome but kinda weird choral rock music starts playing in the background that somewhat resembles GREGORIAN CHANTING. GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY pops back into the ground, and where NATSUKI was, instead is a navy-blue, sparkly DUCATI MOTORCYCLE]

SHIZURU: ... Natsuki?

NATSU-CYCLE: Beep! Beep! [Motor revs, and headlights blink off and on.]

SHIZURU: ...? Natsuki, is that you?

NATSU-CYCLE: Beep! [Headlight blinks again]

SHIZURU: ... ?[Hesitantly walks over to NATSU-CYCLE and puts a hand on one of the handlebars.]

NATSU-CYCLE: Beep! [Engine revs again.]

SHIZURU: Well, um, okay. [Slides a leg over NATSU-CYCLE's seat and straddles her.] Oh! You're warm!

NATSU-CYCLE: ...! [Headlights turn pink]

SHIZURU: [Practically lying down on top of NATSU-CYCLE.] Reeeally warm.

NATSU-CYCLE: ... ... ... [Headlights are still pink. Weakly.] Bu-bu-beep...?

[Suddenly, MOVIE!UTENA (totally naked but important bits are covered by waves upon waves of cascading pink hair) walks onto the scene and jams a HELMET on top of SHIZURU's head.]

SHIZURU / NATSU-CYCLE: ?

MOVIE!UTENA: Practice safe sex, kids!

* * *

OMAKE II: Roger Doger Rabbit.

[CHIKANE is sitting in a chair wearing a sparkling red dress with her waist cinched so ridiculously tiny, her neck is wider around. She also wears purple gloves pulled up passed her elbows, as well as a super heavy, purple eye shadow and red lipstick. Her hair covers one eye, and she's got a long cigarette holder in between two fingers. SHIZURU is standing beside her, wearing a suit, and acting as her attorney. There are a whole slew of microphones set up in front of her with reporters and photographers snapping pictures.]

REPORTER1 : Miss Himemiya! Miss Himemiya! Dave Jones with the Daily Star! As readers have pointed out, you're evil quite often! Why is that?

CHIKANE: [Looks up at SHIZURU, who nods. Turns to look dispassionately at the reporter] I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.

* * *

OMAKE III: Can't forget the Mai-Hime Style Preview Of Next Episode

[MIDORI's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

MIDORI: Next time, on _Revolutions_, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, I get screen time! Woohoo!

MAKOTO: [Pops up beside MIDORI holding two beers and gives one to MIDORI] Hey, don't forget me! I get screen time too! Yay! I'm so glad I'm not the only straight woman in this fic! I was totally starting to feel outnumbered!

MIDORI: Cheers! [Clinks glasses with MAKOTO] Hey, wait, should you be having that? Aren't you expecting?

MAKOTO: What? No! [Checks the script again] Aww, what the crap?! This is so totally unfair!

MIDORI: It's alright! I'll drink enough for the both of us! So please, stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 15 – 'Oogami Shrine'!


	16. Chp 15 - Oogami Shrine

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 15 (Oogami Shrine)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

March 12, 2013 – March 25, 2013, Updates through April 20, 2013.

Word Count: 10,900

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

"Himeko! Over here!"

Hearing the familiar voice call her name, Himeko looked over and saw Oogami Makoto waving at her as she stepped through the security gates at the airport. Her old roommte was wearing a lighter fall jacket that fell to her thighs, unbuttoned, and through the open coat, Himeko could see evidence of the early stages of pregnancy around her best friend's tummy.

Smiling weakly at Makoto, and wishing that they weren't meeting under these circumstances, none the less, Himeko shifted the traveler's backpack on her shoulder, and walked over to her friend. "Mako-chan..." she said softly.

"Where the hell have you been the last month?!" Makoto demanded, even as she pulled Himeko into a fierce hug that threatened to cut off all circulation. Himeko made a sort-of-gurgling sound as she weakly patted at one of Makoto's hands to please let air flow down her trachea.

"Nope!" Makoto replied. "Not letting go. What if you run away again, just as soon as I let go, hmm? You can just suffocate for all I care. At least I'll know where you are that way, assuming that your unmarked grave isn't so inconspicuous that I forget where I buried you." And yet, even as the brunette said this, she reluctantly let the tawny haired woman go, though she was careful to keep an iron grip on Himeko's hand.

"I'm sorry for worrying everyone, Mako-chan," Himeko said sheepishly as she swallowed a few times to kick start her respiratory system. "I just... I just didn't know what to do. So I ran. And when that didn't help, I just... ran to the next place. I thought, maybe, if I just had some time to think, some time away, it would help." She sighed. "But it didn't. Not really..."

The excuses sounded pretty pathetic even in Himeko's own ears, but, unfortunately, they were as close to the truth as anything could be.

Makoto stared at Himeko with hooded eyes. Then she thrust her hand out in front of Himeko's nose, palm up. "Passport. Now."

Sweatdropping, Himeko reached into her jacket pocket and brought out the old and worn travel document, which Makoto quickly thumbed through, eyebrows raised. "... Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Thailand, Hokkaido. What the hell?!" Makoto cried. "Geez, Himeko, when you run, you RUN! Either you've got frequent flyer miles spilling out of all your orifices, or you make waaaay too much money, Ms Hot-Shot-Photo-Shot!"

Himeko made a face and rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "Mako-chan, please..."

Seeing the pain in Himeko's eyes, finally, Makoto sighed. "You are going to tell us EVERYTHING in the car ride. We couldn't find parking, so Souma is circling around. And just so we're perfectly clear about something..." Very calmly, Makoto held the passport up in front of Himeko's nose again, and with precise deliberateness, ripped the thing clean in two, right down the middle.

"AAAH!" Himeko cried, frantically grabbing the remains of her passport and staring at the torn document helplessly. "Mako-chan! What are you doing?!"

"... No more running away without a forwarding address," Makoto said crisply, taking Himeko's hand again, and pulling her towards the exit of the airport. "You are going to be staying with us until you get whatever's happened sorted out okay?"

They made it out of the airport and into Souma's car. Mahoroba was too small a town to have its own airport, so they were going to spend the next three hours driving back to the coastal town from the closest regional airport.

"Himeko," Oogami Souma said, relief evident in his brown eyes when the tawny haired photographer got into the back seat. "Thank god you're alright."

Himeko gave her oldest friend a weak smile. "I'm sorry to make you worry, Souma-kun. I'm sorry to make you both worry..."

Soon they were on the road. The old friends were silent for a while, before Makoto finally gave a loud sigh. "Alright, Himeko, spill-"

"Congratulations on the pregnancy," Himeko quickly interrupted, not eager to acknowledge the giant pink elephant in the car just yet. "How far along are you?"

"Hmm? Oh." Makoto looked down at her slightly protrude tummy and put a hand on it. "Oh, hmm... wow many weeks HAS it been now?" Absently, the brunette reached out with her other hand and took her husband's to give it a squeeze as she did some math in her head. "Ah. I do believe it's been 8 weeks of daily barfing, with about 30 more to come." Despite the sarcasm in her voice, there was fondness in her eyes.

Himeko winced. "Oh. Is morning sickness supposed to last that long? Was it that bad with Tsubasa-chan?"

"No and yes." Both Souma and Makoto said at the same time, and then chuckled like there was some sort of hidden joke between them, or perhaps a comedy routine.

Himeko couldn't help but smile. She felt greatly indebted to her oldest and best friends, and, of course, guilty as well. Despite their own busy lives, still, they had reached out to her, and had invited (demanded) that she stay with them. Himeko couldn't help but sigh. What was wrong with her that at almost 32 years of age (in the next week), she still couldn't quite seem to keep her feet planted on the solid ground under her? (She suspected Mako-chan would have made some sort of crack about her feet resting on airplanes floors far too often.)

"Planned?"

Makoto laughed. "Uh, sort of."

Souma smiled. "We always wanted Tsubasa to have a sibling eventually, but we were a little surprised when it happened."

"That's nice," Himeko said, smiling softly. "Being an only child can get pretty lonely."

"Yeah," Makoto agreed softly. There was a pause in the conversation, but she didn't let it last for long. She cut straight to the point, calling out that pink elephant Himeko had been trying to hide.

"Okay, enough about us, Himeko. I'm going to have baby brain for the next 7 or so months, and it's only going to get worse so before that happens, spill. What _happened_?"

Himeko cringed. She looked out the window as she tried to gather her thoughts. She owed her friends the truth – that much, she knew for sure, even if they_ weren't_ going out of their way and housing her for the next little while (which they were).

The car was awkwardly silent for a little while, before Himeko was finally able to speak, her voice soft, and hesitant. She knew this probably wasn't the most delicate way she could put this, considering Souma's feelings towards her once upon a time, but she just wasn't sure how else she could explain it.

"... do you guys remember, in high school, when I said... when I said that I was sure that there was somebody special out there, just for me?"

Souma nodded easily. He flicked his eyes up into the rear view mirror to catch Himeko's own, and Himeko was very (very) relieved that there was no angst in his eyes, just simple memory. It had taken him a long time to do it, but he had finally made peace with her rejection of his advances in their first year of high school. It had been pretty brutal for him for a long time after his confession, and the worst part was, Himeko hadn't even _known _just how tough she had made it for him by continuing to be a part of his life.

Luckily, however, Makoto had gotten to know him throughout high school and into college, and eventually had been able to slap some sense into him, and Souma had finally moved on to date, fall in love with, and marry her. After the wedding, they had become even better friends than before.

Makoto sat up a little straighter, and slowly turned around to look at Himeko from the front passenger seat, her aqua colored eyes wide. "I remember. Why are you bringing this up now? Are you trying to say what I think you're trying to say?"

Himeko closed her eyes. "... I found her." She affirmed softly, as guilt threatened to overwhelm her. She clenched her hands into fists, twisting at the fabric of her long jacket. "... She wasn't Juri-chan."

There was stunned silence in the car as Makoto continued to stare at Himeko, who couldn't meet her eyes, before the married woman turned back to face the front of the car. "... Ouch." She finally said. There was sympathy in her voice, but Himeko wasn't quite sure who for.

Souma looked away from the rear view mirror, and turned his attention back on the road.

The car was silent again.

It was Souma who spoke first. "... so... you've split from Arisugawa?"

Himeko nodded silently.

"Via post-it note?" Makoto said, somewhat flatly. She didn't turn back to look at her old roommate, and Himeko could tell that her old friend was angry with her – not that she'd broken up with Juri, but the manner in which she'd done it. "Geez, Himeko. I never would have thought you could be such... such an _asshole_."

Himeko cringed. She deserved that. And worse.

"Makoto..." Souma said softly, his tone distinctly uncomfortable.

"No, seriously! Himeko!" Finally, Makoto turned back to look her old friend in the eye, clearly distraught. "Himeko, when did you become such a coward? You're like, the bravest woman I know! What happened to the girl who stood up and walked out of her abusive relatives' home when she was in high school? What happened to the woman who put herself through college with no help, and then, when everyone else was still trying to figure out what to do with their lives, sold everything she owned and packed her bags to go flying off all around the world? Himeko, how could you just-"

"How could I tell Juri-chan that I'm in love with a _15 year old_?"

Souma almost swerved onto oncoming traffic. Makoto frantically grabbed the holy-shit handle bar above the passenger side window.

The married couple both cried out at the same time, "what?!"

Himeko buried her head in her hands.

_Weeks._ Weeks she'd tried to come to terms with what her heart was trying to tell her. Weeks she'd thought about it, endlessly, too scared and guilty to admit it, to even say it out loud. This was the first time she'd been able to utter those words: _She was in love with a 15 year old._

They sounded just as ridiculous as she'd feared they would.

"Hi-Himeko..." Souma said, uncomfortable and out of his element, and clearly trying to find some way to understand the situation from a direction he was more familiar with, "you, uh, know that sexual relations with a minor is a crime in every municipal jurisdiction in Japan, right?"

"Shut up, Honey!" Makoto answered quickly. "Strike that from your memory! It didn't happen! She didn't say that!" But now she turned to look back at the tawny haired woman in the back seat, her eyes crinkled with disbelief. "But... seriously, Himeko, did you..." Makoto looked at her husband, chief of police at Mahoroba's First Precinct, and quickly leaned over to cover his ears.

The car swerved a little, and Souma gave his wife a look that clearly said he thought she was crazy, but didn't stop her.

Makoto gave Himeko a very serious face. "Himeko, did you..." she lowered her voice conspiratorially, "... sleep with a _teenager_?"

Himeko turned bright pink and buried her face in her hands. This conversation was going exactly the way she had desperately wished it wouldn't. "No, Mako-chan, no!" She said, shaking her head emphatically. "I _just_ met her! I was in her company for all of 30 minutes! I didn't...! I mean, we kissed. I met her, and I... I don't know what came over me. I just... I just knew it was her. And she knew it was me. And we kissed. That was all. I didn't...! I haven't...! _No_!"

"Huh." Blinking a few times, Makoto considered this, before unhanding her husband's ears, and settling herself back into her own seat. "You know, Himeko, considering some of the scandals out there and how these situations normally go, that's, uh, almost a letdown."

Now Souma gave his wife a look that clearly said he _knew_ she was crazy.

Luckily, Makoto didn't catch his look and she simply frowned. "But, Himeko, if you _just_ met her, then how-?"

"I just knew!" Himeko replied, not needing to hear the rest of Makoto's question to be able to answer it. She could remember a conversation she had with Juri, years ago. _The_ conversation. The one that had changed her life. The one she had been – and still was, actually – so grateful to Juri for, she'd mistaken deep affection, and even deeper gratitude, for love.

_"How could you know, when you've met this person? This, 'someone special, just for you'? You've never gone on a date before, never even let yourself go on one. So how could you know who it is you're looking for, what you like? How can you be sure you haven't already met them?"_

How Himeko wished, desperately wished, that she could have had the foresight, and the faith, to say, at the time, to avoid causing so much heartache and grief to everyone now involved in this horrible mess:

_I'll just know._

* * *

On some level, Sugiura Midori realized that it was probably inappropriate for her to be feeling this jazzed and pumped about the current quagmire that the Hime found themselves in. It was a serious situation, after all, with potentially sombre implications for all of them, but this was why mythology and history had always fascinated her, and why she had gone into the field of archaeology really. To not only be studying the details of stories and legends that had survived the passage of time for hundreds and thousands of years, but to actually _be_ a part of the latest iteration of it!

To participate actively in the stuff of legends...!

Honestly, if not for the whole losing-the-most-important-person-to-you, and cutting-down-your-friends-and-allies thing, Midori would have been over the moon to find herself a Hime, and a part of the Red Star Festival, and, even now, with Gakutenoh back at her beck and call, the history teacher found herself somewhat giddy from the excitement of it all.

It didn't hurt that the situation had brought her back into the company of Morimoto Yukihito either! When she had been a first year freshmen at University, he was just about to complete his masters level thesis on the legend of Yamata no Orochi. And, if Midori had to be honest, watching the gorgeous, at-the-time 30 something year old entertain a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears freshmen to the point where they were eating out of the palm of his hand, had a faaar larger impact on her career choice than she cared to admit.

She'd only been a little heartbroken when she found out they shared similar tastes in men – older, academic, and completely oblivious to the sexual charisma that they generated – but then that heart break somehow morphed into a great friendship (copious amounts of alcohol consumption may or may not have been involved; only Sagisawa Youko could confirm for sure), despite the difference in years.

When they finally pulled up to Oogami Shrine, and Midori met Oogami Kazuki, single, 45, lightning struck her square in the face (and loins), and the history teacher found herself falling head over heels in love (or maybe just lust) with the handsome head priest of the shrine sporting the full head of long, deep green hair, just lightly starting to sprinkle with grey.

"Sensei," Morimoto Yukihito said, smiling at the man who had mentored him so much in his youth, and whose family he would happily call his own. "Please, allow me to introduce you to the colleague I was talking to you about. This is-"

"Hi! My name is Midori!" Midori accidentally cut Yukihito off in her enthusiasm to get to know Oogami Kazuki. She smiled winsomely (a little too winsomely) at him. "Sugiura Midori!"

Kazuki smiled at her politely, exchanging an amused look with Yukihito who rolled his eyes. "Nice to meet you, Sugiura-san. My name is Oogami Kazuki. Yukihito told me all about your interest in the legend of Ame no Murakumo. Please. Welcome to Oogami shrine. It's not very often that I have the opportunity to entertain scholars of folklore and mythology such as yourself."

Midori found herself completely lost for words, and all she could do with grin goofily up at the tall man, before Nao face-palmed beside her, and Natsuki elbowed her in the side. "Oh, right! This is Yuuki Nao-chan, and Kuga Natsuki-chan. They're my students and will be helping me with my research."

The head priest of the shrine smiled politely at the two girls who bowed their heads back. "Oh dear," he said with a laugh. "I must be getting old, because you two seem far too young to be university students."

Midori sweatdropped. "Oh, um, they're not in university yet. They're still in high school." She rubbed the back of her head nervously as she laughed. "Um, they're, uh, really cheap child labour?"

Nao and Natsuki looked at Midori like the teacher was out of her mind. Yukihito laughed. "Oh, Midori-chan," he muttered under his breath. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

"... and we're also really interested in the legend." Nao said flatly. "Really interested. Because it's so super interesting." She sneezed and shivered. Though she'd dried off a little bit at the gas station, and warmed up a little bit in Morimoto Yukihito's car, she was still acutely uncomfortable, having not had the foresight to pack rain gear (like Midori) or wear full riding leather she could just take off (like Natsuki).

For her part, Natsuki just looked pained, shaking her head and muttering under her breath.

But something about his visitors must have tickled Kazuki's amusement, for he simply laughed and said, "well, if that's the case, then please, by all means. I am always glad to help educate young keen minds. Please, this way."

"Actually," Nao interrupted bluntly, the irritation clear in her voice. "Hi, sorry. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm still pretty much drenched to the bone from driving up here in the rain. If I had nuts, they'd have frozen off. See these tits? HOW CAN YOU MISS THEM I'M SO FREAKING COLD! What the hell do I have to do to use a shower around here?!"

Both Natsuki and Midori looked at Nao with eyes wide with horror, wondering on which planet this girl was raised to think displaying such rudeness would score her sympathy and a hot shower from a stranger.

But, luckily for Nao, Kazuki just laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, of course, we can help you out with that first."

* * *

"Oh my god!" Sagisawa Youko cried, when Chikane brought a hobbling Shizuru into the nurse's office. "What the hell happened?!"

"It's not as bad as it looks," the tawny haired former student council president said as nonchalantly as a cucumber, even as she eased herself into the chair and propped her leg up, making a face.

"What, did you just decide to stick a hot fire poker through your leg?" Youko muttered, kneeling down to examine the nasty burn/puncture wound on Shizuru's thigh.

"Clearly, sensei," Shizuru said with a weak smile, wincing as Youko applied pressure to the wound. "My leg is a far more appropriate place for such a tool to rest than a fireplace, is it not?"

"It was an arrow." Chikane said softly, guilt clear on her features. "An accident due to my own clumsiness."

The school nurse didn't seem to believe the (other) former student council president. "Was the arrow head on fire or something?" She only began to change her mind when the blue-black haired girl answered, with no irony in her voice whatsoever, "yes."

The school nurse stared at the tenth grader, who wasn't able to hold her gaze for long. "..."

Youko did what she could for Shizuru but in the end, decided that it wasn't enough. "You two, stay here. I'm going to call up the paramedics. We should get you to Fuuka General Hospital. God, why do the two of you together always seem to result in the weirdest of accidents?"

Neither girls answered the nurse as she left to make the phone call. After she left, Shizuru looked over at Chikane, who had taken up a position near the window and was looking out of it.

"At least she didn't notice your stomach." Shizuru said.

Chikane turned around to meet Shizuru's eyes first, before flicking them downwards. She unbuttoned the blazer she was wearing to reveal the blood stained shirt with the clean cut across her abdomen. Though the shirt was torn and blood soaked, Chikane's skin underneath was unblemished, already healed. "Thank you for letting me borrow your jacket." Chikane said softly.

"Please dry clean it before you return it." Shizuru replied wryly. She grimaced as she moved her leg and felt sparks of pain lance up from her wound. She sighed enviously. "That's a very convenient ability you've picked up."

"You could have it too," Chikane answered, a somewhat pensive lilt to her voice. She smiled somewhat wanly. "Though, I don't think you would be willing to pay the price for it."

"You mean my relationship with Natsuki in return for the ability to heal my own wounds by becoming a disciple of the latest incarnation of despair?" Shizuru laughed somewhat hollowly. "You're right. I would never forfeit that for something so paltry in return. After all, who ever heard of the power of despair ever being able to heal anything?"

Chikane was silent for a moment, before she spoke, uncertainly. "I may have lied to you, Shizuru-sempai." She finally admitted.

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. "Ara?"

Chikane turned away from Shizuru, looking out the window again. Wondering what had captured her attention so, Shizuru also peered out the window, and could see that the nurse's office overlooked one of the many flower gardens that adorned Fuuka Academy's campus.

There was a familiar maid-uniform clad woman with short pink hair tending awkwardly to the flowers. Even from here, Shizuru could tell that the eyes on the woman were dead and soulless and her motions clumsy and inelegant. Shizuru looked up at Chikane and could see that the younger girl's attention was fully upon the creepy groundskeeper. Shizuru could never understand why, out of the entire groundskeeping staff, that particular woman was allowed to wear a maid's uniform, rather than the regular uniform of denim overalls that was more suited to the line of work the woman was employed to do. "Why are you looking at Groundskeeper Himeno like that?" Shizuru asked.

"Director Himeno." Chikane corrected.

"Hmm?"

"Not Groundskeeper Himeno; Director Himeno." Chikane repeated. Her eyes were filled with regret. "Though, of course, you do not remember her as such."

Shizuru frowned at Chikane's cryptic words until something finally clicked. Shizuru raised her tawny colored eyebrows in surprise. "... you already have a disciple, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Someone agreed to become your servant willingly?" Shizuru breathed, not quite wanting to comprehend what manner of circumstances could lead anyone to making the choice to become a disciple of despair.

"She was not given a choice." Chikane said, regret and sorrow clear in her voice. She put her hand on the window pane pensively. "I needed her. Director Himeno's Child was Suishouhime, who houses the soul of Kazahana Mashiro. I have need for Mashiro-san." Chikane closed her eyes, and grit her teeth. "The Obsidian Lord's attention has been diverted from me for now. He holds no soul in more contempt than he does Kazahana Mashiro, and I can't let him know of my plans."

Shizuru's frown deepened.

The girls remained silent for a long time, before Shizuru finally asked, softly, "... and what are your plans for Natsuki and I?" She said. "What lie have you told me?"

Chikane continued to watch the woman in the flower garden. Fumi's actions were so dead and mechanical it was painfully clear the woman was broken.

"In truth," Chikane said, "I do not know what will happen should I attempt to turn Kiyohime into one of my necks. You may lose Natsuki-sempai, you may not. Kiyohime is the representation of your love for Natsuki-sempai, so, if she is corrupted into a neck of Orochi, the very foundations that make up the basis from which your love springs, never happen in the first place. You never meet Natsuk-sempai in the first place, so you never come to love her. Just as Himeno Fumi never met Kazahana Mashiro..."

Shizuru frowned. "Yes. This you've explained to me already, Chikane-san."

Finally, Chikane turned to regard Shizuru curiously. "But your situation with Natsuki-sempai is a little different from Fumi-san's. Your most important person is also a Hime herself, and Natsuki-sempai's child is a representation of her love for you. Even if I do corrupt Kiyohime, it is not that Natsuki-sempai's child will automatically become my servant as well. If anything, I suspect that Natsuki-sempai will fight back, and resist the unwinding of time. So, from one direction, even though time will be re-written, such that you never met Natsuki-sempai, from the other direction, Natsuki-sempai will still have met, and come to love, you. It is a paradox, and I am not sure which side will win out over the other."

Shizuru stared at Chikane wordlessly, and felt her heart tie itself quietly into a very strange and convoluted ball of knots equal parts apprehension and hope.

Chikane looked down at Shizuru's leg, at the wound that she had caused when she had misfired her arrow in a bluff that Shizuru had not fully fallen for. "That injury is light." Chikane said softly. "And so, you do not need my power to heal yourself..."

Chikane trailed off, but Shizuru could very loudly hear the implication of what the younger girl hadn't disclosed.

Shizuru swallowed, looking down at her leg, and putting a tentative hand close to the wound. It stung. "I sincerely hope," Shizuru said very softly, "that your plans for me do not include a situation in the near future where I must bet my life against my faith in Natsuki's love for me."

Chikane closed her eyes, and turned to look out the window again. "You know that that is not a promise that I can be held to, Shizuru-sempai."

* * *

The Obsidian Lord snarled, as best he could, for an entity without a body or a face or a mouth or lips. In the mindscape of Himemiya Chikane, the current incarnation of despair, he was in his true form, that of a giant, yellow eye encased in a deep purple shell with red veins and a large crack through the case that split him in two diagonally. He faced a massive eight headed dragon-like beast, seven out of eight long necks wrapped in prayer wards and massive chains. The lone freed neck of the eight was lifted up, glowering at him, hissing and spitting. She opened her snake-like jaws to snap razor sharp teeth at him.

_'STAY AWAY FROM US!'_ Snapped the first head of Orochi, sounding equal parts like Kazahana Mashiro and Himeno Fumi. _'LEAVE, OBSIDIAN. YOU CANNOT CONTROL OUR MASTER. SHE IS TOO STRONG FOR YOU. LEAVE OUR MINDSCAPE NOW, BEFORE WE FINISH WHAT WE STARTED AND BREAK YOU INTO A MILLION TINY PIECES!' _

A cascade of giant glowing red eyes suddenly flashed all over the mostly bound and chained body of the beast, cutting into the representation of despair's flesh, and sending gouts of inky green blood spraying as they passed as though the beast were being carpet bombed. All eight heads howled in pain, writhing under the assault, causing the giant chains that kept them bound to cut deeper into their shared flesh, only causing them more pain.

The lone freed neck snarled, and opened her mouth to spit bolts of lightning at Obsidian, who grunted in discomfort when the lightning bolts hit him head on.

_'YOU WILL SUBMIT TO ME, SUISHOUHIME!'_ Obsidian roared, _'YOU AND YOUR MISTRESS BOTH!'_

But though he said this, worriedly, in the back of his mind, for the first time since he had agreed to this joint enterprise with the End of the World, Obsidian began to wonder if he really would be able to exact his revenge the way he had wished too, the way he'd been promised.

He had not expected the Lunar Priestess to (apparently) embrace the new destiny thrust upon her in this manner; to take her new mantle as the incarnation of despair, and actually, actively, seek disciples to aid her in her goals. Worst still, Obsidian had come to realize, was that he was no longer sure what those goals even were, for somehow, the Lunar Priestess was managing to actively hide a part of her mind from him. Where once he had been privy to all of her thoughts (ugh, what disgusting, devotional drivel those had been, love-Himeko-this, and not-good-enough-for-her-that), for the last couple of weeks, just after the first night the Lunar Priestess had subconsciously called upon Take no Yamikazuchi, those feelings, those all-encompassing, life driving desires, had been suspiciously silent.

Not all was as it appeared to be. He wasn't even sure if her goal was still to have her wishes granted upon the Red Star by manipulating the winner of the festival, and destroying the Hime in the process, as _he_ had planned.

And while Obsidian had been pleased, ecstatic even, when Chikane forced Suishouhime to become her servant, and had come to embrace her logic, that death was not the worst punishment, that compared to soul-crushing despair, oblivion was a mercy, he had not expected that Suishouhime, as a neck of the new Orochi, would be freed from her chains, and would start taking out that fury, that despair, on _him_.

And if he was having as much trouble as he already was with one neck loose, Obsidian shuddered to think about how poorly he would fair if all eight necks were to break free, as, he suspected, might soon come to be, as Kannazuki, the godless month, approached.

The End of the World had not been in further contact with him either.

No, Obsidian realized, even as he fought back against the screaming Suishouhime, things were not going according to plan at all, and he would likely have to take matters into his own hands.

* * *

The sun began to set.

Two girls approached the woman who was still working in the garden, over watering some of the flowers to the point where it was certain they would not survive, even as their neighbours died of thirst. One of the girls was supporting the other, who had to make use of a crutch.

"Director Himeno," Chikane said softly, even as she left Shizuru's side and approached the woman killing the fauna. Shizuru watched their interactions with keen, but silent eyes.

Fumi didn't acknowledge her new master. She simply continued to drown the flowers.

"... Fumi-san, please." Chikane repeated herself.

Finally, Fumi turned around and met the girl's eyes with barely restrained cold fury in her own. "What do you want?" She asked coldly.

Chikane frowned, guilt gliding momentarily through her eyes before she steeled herself, and held her head high in command. "Suishouhime is suffering." She advised crisply. "Summon her, please. Obsidian's attacks are brutal, and while she is fighting back, there is only so much she can do without allies. Please, summon her, and bring her out onto this plain of existence, however temporarily, so that she may at least be rid of him for a little while."

Fumi only continued to glare at Chikane.

"... Orphans have been sighted, Fumi-san." Chikane said. "They will damage the school, and harm its students, and its staff. Though they may not remember you as such, you remember who you once were. You have a responsibility and a duty to this school, and all who find shelter here, do you not? Or would you allow Kazahana Mashiro's legacy to become so tarnished?"

Fumi's jaw tightened as she continued to lock icy glares with Chikane. After a while, she flicked her eyes over to Shizuru's and the ruby-eyed girl was surprised to see such intensity in the groundskeeper she had only ever known as half-dead.

Wordlessly, Fumi turned around, and continued to water the flowers.

The blue-black haired girl continued to watch the would-have-been-Director for a few more moments, before turning and going back to Shizuru to help her along. "Come on, let's go."

Shizuru was silent for a long time, as they made their way slowly across campus. It wasn't until they were well away, out of earshot but within line of sight of the garden, did Shizuru stop and asked, "why did you have me witness that?"

Chikane was silent. She looked back at the garden, and Shizuru followed her gaze to look back.

Fumi was leaping away from them, her jumps impossibly long and tall, holding a scythe in her hands.

The high school and university student watched as the woman bounded away. Shizuru frowned. "Should we not go with her?" She asked. "Is she not going to fight the orphan?"

Chikane shook her head. "She is, but I suspect that Mai-san and the others will also be there, and, I am not so sure my presence will be welcome. There is also another matter that I am hoping we can get to. I apologize, but it may be a bit difficult for you."

The tawny-haired girl looked at her younger companion curiously. "And what might this be?"

"It is about the First District. I wish to get in contact with what remains of that organization."

Shizuru's eyes widened.

* * *

"Once upon a time," Oogami Kazuki began.

"Oh, great. I just love where this is going." Nao grumped.

"Be quiet, Nao-chan!" Midori admonished her student, whapping her upside the head with a handy halisen from out of nowhere. "Come on, how can you not like a story that begins with 'once upon a time'? All the best stories begin with 'once upon a time'!"

Nao rubbed the back of her head sorely and gave Midori a sour look.

"Can you not at least be civil and polite to the guy who gave you a shower and a change of clothes?" Natsuki muttered, face palming.

Nao still grumped, and turned her attention back onto Kazuki. "May Jesus bless you, for the shower."

Natsuki almost slammed her head against the table they were all seated at in disbelief. "Really?! Nao?! Really? How the hell did you get the church to accept you? I swear every other word that comes out of your mouth is a blasphemy or a sacrilege!"

"Oh, what do you care, Kuga!" Nao snapped back. "Just shut up. I didn't make it through the postulancy, okay?"

Natsuki stared at Nao in confusion. It was clear she didn't quite understand what Nao was necessarily talking about, but she could tell that the red head was miffed. "... I'm sorry to hear about that." Natsuki muttered softly.

"Yeah, whatever. Don't worry about that." Nao said. She looked up at Kazuki. "Come on, let's keep going."

Midori looked at her student in sympathy, and rubbed her back. The red head simply gave a gurgle of disapproval.

Kazuki blinked, not quite sure if he was supposed to go on or not, but then Midori smiled enthusiastically at him, and he smiled weakly back.

"Once upon a time," he repeated, "the earth was ravaged by the Eight Headed Demon of Despair, Yamata no Orochi. He descended onto the earth during the month of Kannazuki, the godless month, when all the gods left their shrines and congregated at Izumo Taisha. "

"What year was this?" Midori interrupted. "The month is clear, the tenth month, Kannazuki, is October, which would have been closer to November under the lunar calendar until 1873, but okay, sure. More importantly, about what year are we talking about?"

Kazuki stared at Midori, and laughed weakly. "There's a reason why we start the story with 'once upon a time, Sugiura-kun." He looked over meaningfully at Yukihito.

Yukihito laughed. "Sorry, sensei, the cat is out of the bag. Midori-chan knows a lot more than most scholars, certainly more than the average academic, and she's already voraciously eaten through all of my research papers and published journal articles, so I don't think a vague answer will cut it for her."

"Is that so?" The green haired researcher cocked an eyebrow up and looked at Midori with more appraisal. "I suppose, if you want to get down into the nitty gritty details right away, then I would say that the earliest indication I have of Yamata no Orochi walking the earth was in the 14th centry, BCE." Kazuki paused. "I presume you are aware of the cycle of Orochi? That he returns to the earth roughly once every 300 years?"

Midori nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, very much so. According to my research, the legend of Yamata no Orochi and Ame no Murakumo is tightly linked to the legend of the Hime Star festival. Every 300 years, Orochi breaks free from his bonds, and ravages the earth. The Solar and Lunar Priestess then perform rituals to summon Ame no Murakumo to defeat Orochi and undo his evil. Upon Orochi's sealing, the Red Star of Wishes, the Hime Star, appears in the sky, and thus begins the Hime Star Festival, in which 12 maidens are chosen to battle one another. The victor is granted a single wish, to remake the world as she sees fit, and peace is then returned to man once again, at least, until 300 years pass, and humanity has broken the world so much that Orochi is set free once more to begin the cycle anew."

Both Yukihito and Kazuki stared at Midori like she was on drugs or something. "Hime Star Festival..." Yukihito muttered. "What are you talking about, Midori? This is the first time I've heard of this."

Midori raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You guys are supposed to be the experts on Ame no Murakumo, and you haven't even heard about the Hime Star Festival? What about the Obsidian Lord? Ring any bells?"

Both Yukihito and Kazuki shook their heads awkwardly.

Midori frowned. "Weird." She brought out her backpack, and from it, she fished out a single, old, leather tomb. Nagi's book. "I guess neither of you have seen this before?"

Surprisingly, both men's eyes did widen in recognition. "Actually," Kazuki murmured, surprised. "Actually, yes. I have seen this before, once. Many years ago." He made a face as he tried to think back to it. "... hmm… about 15 or 16 years ago, I believe. We had an unusual visitor to the shrine. She had the most striking green eyes, and pale lavender hair. She used a wheelchair."

Midori's eyes widened at the same time Nao and Natsuki's did too. "That's Kazahana Mashiro! One of Fuuka Academy's Director's! Well, one of our former directors anyway. She disappeared a few months back. Dammit!" Midori sighed. "I was defending the Balkan ruins from grave robbers at the time, so I was away from Fuuka. I have no idea what happened, and the new Directors are mostly useless. Dammit, why did Arisugawa have to quit? She was like, the only not-useless one on the Board!"

"Defending the Balkan...?" Kazuki trailed off as he looked over at Yukihito in confusion.

Yukihito laughed. "Oh yeah, she's not exaggerating, sensei. Saw the pictures myself."

Kazuki blinked and then turned his attention back to stare at Midori as though seeing her for the very first time. Blinking his eyes a few times, a small, hopeful smile spread on his face. "Um, Sugiura-sensei," he said, a little nervously. "Would you and your students like to stay for dinner?"

Midori beamed, while Natsuki raised an eyebrow and Nao rolled her eyes.

"Yes!"

"No."

"What's for dinner?"

Midori glared at Natsuki and Nao, before giving Kazuki another smile. "Excuse me for a moment." She grabbed her students' ears and dragged them out of the room and into the hallway.

Once outside and assured that she was out of Kazuki's earshot, she looked at Natsuki and Nao and clapped her hands together in front of her nose in the universal pose for 'I need a favor'. "You guys! Please! Look at him! Have you ever SEEN a man be so good looking while so gentlemanly and intelligent? Ohmigod, I _need_ this! I _need_ to stay for dinner!"

"Midori," Natsuki exasperated, rubbing her temple as though she were having the mother of all headaches. "Can we please concentrate on what is important and at stake here? We came here to get information! This is not a social visit! This is life and death and who knows what's happening to Shizuru right n-!"

"Answers." Nao interrupted flatly. "To all of your quizzes for the next semester."

"Nao-chan!" Midori gasped, pretending to be far more scandalized than she actually was. "Are you trying to black mail me?! Why, I could lose my teaching license if the board finds out I'm helping a student cheat! And this favour is worth, at most, maybe three quizzes worth of answers!"

Nao shrugged. "Five quizzes, and it's a deal. And I'm fairly certain you don't have a teaching license, Midori-chan. You were waiting tables until last year. How you got a job at Fuuka is beyond me."

Midori pulled at her hair in exasperation. "Argh! Fine! It's a deal. We're staying for dinner!"

"Midori! Nao!' Natsuki cried, unable to believe her ears. "Are you serious? What about-"

"Oh, for the love of... Kuga, zip it." Nao rolled her eyes again. "Just because you're getting plenty doesn't mean everyone else is, so just shut up and let the woman have a booty call, if it gets that far. 1000 yen says it doesn't go anywhere because, you know, HE'S A PRIEST, for crying out loud!"

If looks could kill, both Midori and Natsuki would have murdered Nao.

A few minutes later found the Oogami dinner table packed to the gills with four more people over for dinner than normal – Midori, Natsuki, Nao and Himeko. Yukihito, alas, had to go home.

Natsuki and Midori stared across the dinner table at Himeko who stared back at them, all of them holding bowls of rice in one hand and chopsticks in the other.

"Wait. I know you. What are you doing here?" They all practically said some semblance of those words in some semblance of that combination, all at roughly the same time.

Makoto blinked as she looked at Himeko, then blinked again and looked over at Midori, before blinking a third time and looking back at Himeko, all the while bringing a mouthful of rice to her lips. She opened her mouth mechanically to put said rice in, and then slowly started to chew, even as she blinked over at Midori once more, then back at Himeko, then back at Midori again. She swallowed, put her chopsticks down, and reached over to offer Midori her hand. "Hi. My name is Oogami Makoto. I live here. Who are you?"

"Oh. Sorry, Makoto, Souma." Kazuki returned to the table holding some more side dishes which he put down in the centre of the table. "I invited Sugiura Midori-sensei here, and her students, Kuga Natsuki and Yuuki Nao, to dinner. They came all the way from Fuuka Island to study about the legend of Ame no Murakumo, and I thought, for their troubles, the least I could do was invite them to dinner. Sugiura-san, this is Oogami Souma and Oogami Makoto, my brother and sister in law. That is their son, my nephew, Tsubasa-kun. And this is Kurusugawa Himeko-san, their guest." Kazuki smiled at Himeko. "It is good to see you again, Kurusugawa-kun. We don't see you very often anymore. Still jet-setting around the world with Arigusawa-san?"

Himeko's face suddenly fell, and she cast her eyes down at the table. She didn't say anything, but it was abundantly obvious to everyone at the table that Kazuki had hit upon something he shouldn't have.

The head priest of Oogami shrine sweatdropped and looked over at his brother and sister-in law, wondering what had happened. Souma only shook his head, while Makoto winced.

"Aaah, Fuuka Island, you said?" Makoto laughed awkwardly, trying to change the conversation. "Hey, talk about a totally small world! That's where Himeko spent the summer and never-mind let's not talk about that right now, aaaah nom nom nom..."Watching Himeko's face fall further and further, Makoto wisely shut up and just started shoveling rice into her mouth.

* * *

Despite how awkwardly dinner had started, by the end of the meal, Midori and Makoto decided that they were sisters from different mothers.

"Seriously!" Makoto laughed. "Shaving cream, all over the place!"

"Oh my god, if I ever complain that PE teachers had sacks full of fermenting potatoes for brains ever again, shoot me!" Midori laughed, clinking her cup of sake against Makoto's tea cup. She deeply wished the other woman wasn't pregnant. They would have really cut loose otherwise.

Makoto grinned. "And if I ever say history teachers are all stuffy shirted walking tombs of decomposing boredom, you can do the same to me!"

Then, at the same time, they said, "but we can both agree that math teachers are the worst of the lot!"

And then they broke down into hysterical laughter at some teaching inside joke that absolutely no one else at the table understood.

"Oookay, Midori," Nao said eyeing the quickly emptying sake bottle. "I think you might have had a little too much to drink..."

"Hmm? No I haven't." Midori picked up the bottle and blinked. "Oh, wow, seriously, have I had this much? I could have sworn it was way less than that."

"You didn't drink most of that," Souma replied wryly, looking over at his first childhood friend. At the corner of the table, there were _three_ empty sake bottles beside Himeko, and she was currently nursing another cup, though she didn't seem all that drunk.

At the moment, Himeko was staring with quiet intensity over at Natsuki, though she wasn't saying anything. For her part, the teenager kept shifting uncomfortably under the gaze, even as she absently entertained young Tsubasa, but every time she tried to catch the older woman staring at her, Himeko would look away.

After a few more moments of this, Himeko took a deep breath and excused herself from the table. "I'm just going to be outside, for some air," she said.

Makoto looked up at her friend, worry marring the otherwise festive expression on her face momentarily. "Are you going to be okay?"

Himeko nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm not going far. You ripped up my passport, remember?" And then she smiled weakly when Makoto frowned at her. "Sorry, that was a bad joke. But I'm fine. You know that's not a lot of alcohol for me. Who would have thought I'd have the strongest constitution out of all of us, hmm, Mako-chan?" Giving her best friend a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, Himeko left the dinner table.

A moment later, Natsuki got up too, putting Tsubasa-chan into Nao's lap. The little boy complained a little bit until he looked up and saw Nao. Then a blush came to his cheeks and he behaved. "Nao, play with him," Natsuki said, even as she hurried after Himeko. "Wait, Kurusugawa-san, may I join you?"

Himeko looked surprised. "If you'd like. I'm just going outside to sit on the veranda."

As they left the dining room, Natsuki could hear Nao say in super dry tones to the little boy in her lap, "what are you staring at?"

The child simply giggled and said, "a pretty girl?"

Nao laughed. "A pretty girl, huh? I bet you say that to anyone who lets you sit on her lap without charging a fee for it."

The boy blinked. "Huh?"

Wandering outside, Himeko and Natsuki made it onto the veranda, shutting the sliding shoji door behind them. Himeko leaned on one of the pillars that support the roof over top of the veranda, while Natsuki went to sit against the other one.

They were silent for a while, both looking up at the crescent moon in the sky. The night air was cool – it was late September already, and the trees were starting to change color.

Natsuki spoke first. "Kurusugawa-san," she said hesitantly.

"You can call me Himeko, if you'd like, Natsuki-chan." Himeko smiled a little sadly at the teenager.

"Then, Himeko," Natsuki said, a little awkwardly. She thought back to the first time she'd met the tawny haired woman, at the beginning of summer, coming up to the apartment tower Shizuru lived in, holding Arigusawa-sensei's hand. Natsuki had been strangely happy, to see the older pair of women be so publicly affectionate. So publicly happy. At the time, she hadn't realized why she'd been happy, but now, it was abundantly clear to her; she had thought, at the time, that perhaps she had found a role model for herself and Shizuru.

"I know it's none of my business, but... did something happen between you and Arisugawa-sensei?" Natsuki asked hesitantly. It wasn't an appropriate question, Natsuki knew, to ask a virtual stranger, and yet, something in the older woman's eyes sparked of familiarity.

Himeko's face instantly looked pained and she closed her eyes. Natsuki wanted to kick herself a little bit for clearly causing the other woman pain. Anyone else would have told her to mind her own business, but the tawny hair woman did not. It took her a while, but when Himeko finally opened her eyes, she admitted, very softly, "we broke up."

They were silent after that, and Natsuki warred internally with herself as to whether or not she should press for more. Instinct honed over years of investigating the first district told her that she should press, that there was something of importance here, and so, even though Natsuki knew she was overstepping her bounds, she asked, "... may I ask what happened? It's just... you both seemed so happy at the gala..."

Himeko considered Natsuki's words for a moment before she chuckled a bit sardonically. "That was a bit of a rough night for us, actually." She said, somewhat weakly.

Then Natsuki watched as Himeko's face went through a few awkward contortions, and it became clear to Natsuki that the older woman had absolutely no poker face whatsoever, and was struggling to determine how much she was comfortable with disclosing. The older woman studied Natsuki intensely for a few moments, and there was such heartbreak in those lilac depths that Natsuki couldn't help but wonder what it was on her own face that was causing the other woman such pain.

In the end, maybe it was something familiar about Natsuki's face, or maybe it was the (copious) amounts of alcohol she had had during dinner, or maybe it was the cool, crisp winter night, but, finally, Himeko sighed and the words tumbled off her tongue.

"I... messed up. There was someone else. She just... walked into my life, just the day before the gala, actually, and somehow, the world turned completely upside down. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew I was already in a relationship, and I knew she was... she was young. Too young. Still a student. So I knew it was wrong, all wrong, and on so many levels." Himeko took a deep, obviously pained breath. "Just like I also knew that she was _the one_. And I couldn't stay with Juri-chan knowing all that."

Himeko fell silent after that and looked away.

Natsuki felt her own heart tie into complicated knots.

On the one hand, she was a little stunned that the other woman had just actually _told_ her all that, although, maybe that was understandable. It was obvious that Himeko had been holding this all in for the last month, and it had been eating her up from the inside out. Sometimes, things one couldn't say to even one's closest friends could be disclosed to perfect strangers instead.

On the other hand, Natsuki wasn't sure how she felt about the contents of the confession. Her first thought, of course, was of Shizuru, and of how she could not dream of being unfaithful to her girlfriend. And then, Natsuki wondered, what if she'd been with someone else already, and then met Shizuru? What would she have done then?

They were both silent for a while after that, before Natsuki said softly, "Himeko?"

The tawny haired woman looked back at the blue-haired girl, and was surprised to see the earnestness in those green depths.

"You're not a bad person." Natsuki said. And it actually surprised Natsuki a little bit how absolutely certain she was of her own assessment.

Himeko was caught completely off guard by Natsuki's words and it showed on her face. And then, Himeko laughed, a small, tired, sad laugh, and tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes but she was able to hold them in, only needing to close her eyes for a few moments to do so.

When she finally opened them again, Natsuki could see that those lilac depths remained complicated, but now, gratitude had entered into the mix, and that warmed her own heart a little.

"Thank you, Natsuki-chan. I'm sorry if I was acting weird during dinner," Himeko said softly. "This is going to sound a little creepy, and I apologize for that too, but it's just that you... you actually look a lot like her."

Natsuki laughed a little too. "No offense, but that _does_ sound a little creepy."

"I know!" Himeko couldn't help but bury her face in her hands, even as her shoulders shook a little bit with laughter. "I was thinking to myself all evening; what's the matter with me?! But, truly, the resemblance between you and Chikane-chan is uncanny!"

"Wait, Chikane?!" Natsuki's eyes widened as a light bulb clicked on over top of her head. "Are you talking about Himemiya Chikane?" And then, a second light bulb clicked on. Natsuki practically leaped to her feet. "Wait, you're THE Kurugusawa Himeko, aren't you? The photographer? The one that Chikane practically cyber stalks?!"

Himeko was stunned. "Excuse me? How do you know so much about... about Chikane-chan?" Her brow wrinkled. "I know she is student council president, so it's not surprising that you know of her, but..."

"She's my roommate!" Natsuki blurted. "She's my roommate, and she's one of my closest friends! My god! Are you...!" Natsuki's eyes widened as a third light bulb and a fourth and a billion more light bulbs clicked on as puzzle pieces started to fall into place.

Now Himeko was looking at Natsuki with concern clear in her eyes. "Am I…? Am I 'what'? Natsuki-chan? What are you talking about? Did something happen to Chikane-chan?"

Natsuki stared at the tawny haired woman in front of her, her mind racing. She wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't sure how much to say. She wasn't sure what the significance was of the connection between Kurusugawa Himeko and Himemiya Chikane, but, somehow, Natsuki couldn't help but think that she was onto something huge and important, and, oh gods, she was going to mess this up, somehow, wasn't she? If she wasn't carefully, she'd lose whatever clue it was that she'd stumbled upon, because that's what ALWAYS happened to her.

Natsuki opened and closed her mouth a few times, before taking a deep breath, and trying to calm herself. "Chikane's been... pretty upset lately. She's... she's not like herself." She finally settled for saying. She needed to regroup and talk to Midori first, and maybe even Nao.

Now Himeko looked very concerned. "In what way? Please, Natsuki-chan, is she hurt? Is she alright? How has she been acting differently? How..." and here, Himeko's eyes widened a little as an epiphany seemed to dawn on her. "Please, Natsuki-chan. Please. I know this sounds very weird, but... could you tell me about her? About Chikane-chan? I feel like I've known her all my life, like she's always been a part of it, but, in actuality, I know almost _nothing_ about her."

Natsuki stared at Himeko, and wondered just how much she should say. Truth be told, in any other circumstance, she would have been a little weirded out by how interested this older woman was in her younger friend, but, knowing now what she did of the other woman, she realized that she _still_ thought Kurusugawa Himeko was a good person.

"Well, for starters," Natsuki began, "her real name is Anthy. Himemiya Anthy. But, she goes by 'Chikane', for some reason. She's an only child, and she loves her mom very much. She's got a pet monkey, her name is Chu Chu, and I swear, that monkey is seriously weird, obsessed with underwear, and nigh indestructible..."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Sorry folks, but work is absolutely killing me. -_-;; Between that and the local anime convention that I help to run, I don't think I'll be able to release the next chapter of Revolutions until the weekend of May 10-12. I'm looking at my notes and I think Revolutions will probably shake out somewhere between 21-22 chapters, which, with luck, should be completed over the next 3-4 months. FIGHT-O!

Thank you very much to all of you for your support! Dezo, Jet, MissGardenia, Radiant Beam – I can't begin to express how awesome you all are! The commentary and depth of analysis in your reviews is amazing and humbling and drives me to spend that extra bit of time and effort to hopefully not F things up.

Ifuritka, JstLurkin, Romanica, shiznats, zen, red9taildfox, FurFurKanga, devilhamster, amy-kun, ShadowCub, Drunken Vickster and anon reviewers – thank you! It means a lot to me every time you leave a note here or at SA or LJ to let me know you're still reading (and hopefully still enjoying, for all the abuse I put you through. ^_^)

And of course, guubear, I love you and could not have even made it even this far without you. ^_^

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: AutoMooobiles

[SHIZURU & NATSUKI are idly talking to each other when, without warning, GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY pops out of the ground under their feet and swallows them whole.]

SHIZURU: Ara?!

NATSUKI: Not again!

[GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY then spits out a navy-blue, sparkly DUCATI MOTORCYCLE and a champagne colored MERCEDES BENZ with ruby colored upholstery.]

SHIZURU-BENZ: O_O _*Honk?!*_

NATSUKI-CYCLE: _*Beep Beep!*_ -_-;

[CUT to a scene of MIDORI in a classroom teaching where MAI, MIKOTO & NAO are sitting in the front row getting remedial lessons.]

MAI: Hey, why am I in the same class as Mikoto & Nao? They're one grade behind meeeeek!

[GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY suddenly slams in through the wall and ingests MIDORI, MAI, MIKOTO & NAO and then spits out 4 more vehicles: An auburn CHARIOT, a white JETLINER with green windows and a sword through the nose cone, a bright yellow CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE with a front end loader and black racing strips, and a screaming lime green DODGE VIPER.]

MIDO-RIOT: *_Ring Ring*_ ._. ?

MAI-LINER: O_o! [Makes a _*swooshing*_ sound like air going through turbines]

MIKOTRUCK: XD! XD! XD! [makes a clown car _*booppa-booppa*_ sound, followed by the _*eeep! eeep! eeep!*_ sound of heavy machinery backing up.]

VIPER-NAO: DX! DX! DX! [A hesitant _*va-vroom_*] O_O! [A more confident _*Va-VROOM_*] XD! XD! XD! [A very noisy *_VA! VA! VRRRRRRROOOOM!_*]

MIDO-RIOT / MAI-LINER / MIKOTRUCK: [All look at VIPER-NAO with sweatdrops on their windshields.]

[The CAMERA view suddenly switches to the GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY's POV, and it is creeping along the floor of a hallway. Suddenly, YUKINO and HARUKA's ankles come into view and the CAMERA-VIEW seems to speed up as GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY rushes the two girls and gulps them down to the sound of shrieking and screaming.

[The GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY suddenly turns green, as though feeling very sick and then spits out two forms with an audible _*Patooie!*_ sound.]

YUKINO: [Still a human but covered in a viscous, unidentified, clear liquid.] Eeeew! What the heck!? Haruka, are you o-! [Cuts off in surprise.]

[HARUKOW is also covered in the same viscous, unidentified, clear liquid. Her brown hide is completely ruffled up with the blonde hair on her head sporting a cowlick so magnificent it makes YUKINO's hair seem positively sensible.]

HARUKOW: [Glares balefully at the GIANT CARWASH OF DESTINY and harrumphs indignantly.] Mooou!

* * *

OMAKE II: Kidnapped! By Shadowy Aliens! (Please blame this omake on Romanica! XD!)

[NATSUKI and SHIZURU are sitting under the gazebo in the rose garden at FUUKA academy, making out and sharing a quiet moment when the FREAKY SHADOW-GIRL MUSIC stars to play. A really old-school flying saucer-like space ship suddenly crashes onto the roof of the gazebo and C-KO and her pet CHIMPANZE fall out and land on the ground in front of NATSUKI and SHIZURU.]

NATSUKI: What the hell?! [Starts worriedly looking around for GIANT CARWASHES OF DESTINY again.]

C-KO: Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Most Popular Couple in Mai Hime Fandom is Kidnapped By Aliens! Lack of Shiznat in Fic Incites Riot!

SHIZURU: Yes! I concur! I have definitely not had enough smut with Natsuki in this fic! I don't care that there's, like, a gazillion different characters from Mai Hime, Kannazuki no Miko and Revolutionary Girl Utena all demanding screen time! Give me my sexy times with Natsuki!

CHIMPANZE: Uugyu! [Suddenly throws a net over NATSUKI and SHIZURU and drags them up into the spaceship with C-KO in tow.]

NATSUKI / SHIZURU: Gaah!

[Spaceship flies away.]

* * *

OMAKE III: With Feeling, A Mai Hime Style Preview

[UTENA's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

UTENA: Next time, on Revolutions, a Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-over, we get some specifics as to how I became an unwed, orphaned, teenaged mother. [Blinks and re-reads the script] The specifics of how... [Looks up confusedly at THE CAMERA] Wait. You're not talking about where babies come from, are you?

[CAMERA sweatdrops and shakes from side to side.]

UTENA: Oh thank god. Because that would be really really weird.

HIMEKO: [Pops up beside UTENA] Um, I think that's code for more mythology weaving between the three series. Like, how Chikane-chan ended up as your daughter...

UTENA: [Looks at HIMEKO and eyebrow twitches dangerously]... and why my baby girl is going to end up dating someone older than her mother?!

HIMEKO: [Sweatdrops profusely] Oh, dear. [Looks down at her feet. Can't quite meet UTENA's glaring eyes.]

UTENA: [Growls] Okay, Kurusugawa, you and I are going to have a bit of a chat. [Glares at the camera] In the meantime, stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 16 – 'Immortality's Price'.


	17. Chp 16 - Immortality's Price

[KnM][RGU][MH] Revolutions

Revolutions – Chapter 16 (Immortality's Price)

A Kannazuki no Miko, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mai Hime X-Over Fanfic

March 10, 2013 – April 1, 2013 (updates through May 10)

Word Count: 10,300

More Author's notes follow at the end. Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

**IMPORTANT NOTE 1:** Please go read DezoPenquin's "Madness of the Sun", if you haven't already. Now. I'll wait. Seriously.

* * *

_*16 Years Ago*_

Death, Utena thought, was suspiciously similar to life.

Actually, she wasn't altogether sure if she was dead or alive at the moment. The doctors and nurses seemed to think she was alive, and the various machines hooked up to her beeping and booping seemed to confirm this assessment, but Utena was faaaairly certain that she had died when a hundred thousand swords had come careening into her and ripped her to shreds.

And, even if she wasn't somehow dead physically, something important inside her was, so she might as well be considered dead, right?

Hope. Faith. Love.

What was the point of living if you didn't have any of the above?

But, somehow, Anthy had done it, had done it for god knows how many years, so, Utena thought, she'd be able to, too. Maybe.

And she wasn't just living for herself anymore after all, or so the doctors told her. Funny. She had heard that pregnancy was supposed to be a huge, massive, all encompassing phenomenon, but, she hadn't even known she was pregnant until the doctors had pointed that fact out to her. She hadn't felt any different. She just wasn't far enough along, she guessed. For better or worse. Probably better for now, with promises to get worse later on.

It was just so hard to motivate herself to be excited about living when she was confined to a hospital bed day after day after day.

_Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news?_

The shadows on the walls around her bed were dancing and somersaulting and cartwheeling capriciously, and Utena couldn't help but feel tendrils of bitterness threaten to come into her heart at their enthusiastic mobility. She continued to lay in the hospital bed, as she'd done for weeks now, and stared up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the annoying chatter of the shadows she could see only in the peripheral of her eyes, and the voices that were talking to her, but only if she wasn't listening to them.

_The Prince! The Prince! We have a new Prince! Well, um, maybe 75% of 35% of 42% of a new Prince? She's actually not quite there yet, and we're not really quite sure either why she's not ready to commit all the way..._

Utena thought one of the shadows was now creeping into the corner of her vision – the one with pigtails, looking at her curiously (or would have been, if she had recognizable features beyond an outline).

_... seriously, Prince? Are you just going to lie there all day, every day? You've finally returned to humanity. Aren't you going to get out there and slay some dragons and rescue some princesses?_

Utena closed her eyes, and curled up on her side as best she could with a couple of tubes sticking out of her._ Go away,_ she thought. _Please. Just... go away._

The shadows didn't answer her, so Utena thought that maybe they had finally listened to her.

But then, she realized, they hadn't.

They'd just been scared away by a more powerful summons.

_... The brave and mighty Susanou no Mikoto..._

Utena's eyes snapped open. _Oh, no. Not this again. _

_...The country of Izumo falls on the river of sunlight..._

Utena grit her teeth. "Stop it." She hissed. "Stop it. Whoever you are, stop it. Stop... calling me."

..._ Eight-headed dragon of the land..._

From deep within her, Utena could feel a very loud roaring, as something she didn't quite understand, but was quite fundamental to her being, started to rumble, and shake, threatening to awaken.

_... diminish at the blade of the Tatsuka sword..._

"NO!" Utena shouted, squeezing her eyes shut again as she balled her hands into fists and pressed her wrists against her eyes, trying to smother out the twin voices chanting insistently inside her head.

_Takemi Katana no kami. Iwatsutsu no oh gami. Kanayana Hiko no kami. God of Kanayama Hime no kami. Tsurugi no Ikusa gami. Tate no Ikusa gami..._

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Utena screamed, suddenly feeling very, very angry. "What more do you people want from me?! What haven't I already given to you?! I'm not who you think I am! I'm not a Prince! I'm just a normal girl! Stop it! Get out of my head! GET OUT!"

Her screaming got the attention of the nurse on duty who rushed into her room, a bewildered look on her face. "Oh, for the love of...!" Seeing Utena in the middle of another fit, almost ripping out the pink hair straight from her head, even as she had already ripped out the tubes that connected her to various monitoring systems, the nurse quickly hit the panic button on the wall. "I need two orderlies to Jane Doe's room, stat. She's at it again."

Within moments, two larger men came to the nurse's aid, and between the three of them, they managed to wrestle the agitated girl back down onto the bed, but only after she broke one of their arms, and gave the other one a black eye. Eventually, the nurse was able to inject her with a calming drug.

"... get... out." Utena muttered, slowly sinking back into slumber. "... please. Just... get out of my head. I'm not... I'm not... whoever... you think I am. I'm not the Prince. I'm not... Ame... no.. Mura... ku..."

Sleep claimed her.

She spent the next several weeks drifting in and out of consciousness, as the hospital staff struggled with whether or not they should deem her a dangerous patient.

It wasn't until the end of October, did Utena finally succumb to destiny, and answer the insistent calls of the Solar Priestess.

She was asleep at the time, and in her dreams, she could see a determined teen aged girl with tawny colored hair wearing the purple robes of the Lunar Priestess standing in front of a ceremonial mikoshi – her mikoshi, Utena realized, or the mikoshi of the deity she had become when she had caused a Revolution to occur at the fundamental-building-block level of the universe.

Six swords were embedded in the stone floor just in front of the mikoshi. Six powerful sealing wards to ensure that the God of Swordsmen would not be summoned willy-nilly, that only under the most dire of circumstances, when Yamata no Orochi had ruined the world, would Ame no Murakumo be disturbed.

Three of the six sealing wards had already been broken.

Utena stared at the girl, and felt her heart stir. She... she knew this girl. Somehow, she got the distinct impression that she knew this girl very intimately, as though they had spent a very, very large amount of time very close to each other.

A strange thought floated through Utena's mind as she stared at the girl.

_Shouldn't... shouldn't your uniform be red? _Utena wondered.

And then wondered why she would wonder that.

The girl began to chant.

_"... The brave and mighty Susannou no Mikoto. The country of Izumo falls on the river of sunlight. Eight-headed dragon of the land, diminish at the blade of the Tatsuka sword."_

Utena stared at the girl in horror. "No..." She whispered. "No. Please. _You're_ the one who's been calling me all this time?"

The girl didn't answer her; she probably didn't even know she was there. She just continued to chant, even as the spirits that protected the mikoshi started to stir. Utena stared at the wooden structure just behind the 3 still standing swords.

The spirits were angry. They knew the summoning ritual required two souls – the Solar AND Lunar Priestesses, and the fact that there was only one girl chanting meant that she was not performing the ceremony properly.

It meant that she was insulting Ame no Murakumo with her presence.

The guardian spirits were angry, and they attacked.

They lashed out with tendrils of buzzing spiritual energy, causing the entire cave that housed the mikoshi to rumble like thunder and spark like lightning. It was a terrifically frightening display of foreboding power, and the energy whipped at the tawny haired girl relentlessly, painfully, tearing out chunks of flesh from her body and opening up cuts and wounds everywhere.

The girl muffled a cry, and collapsed to the ground, where she laid, shivering, in fear and in pain. Gasping for breath, she placed her palms on the ground, leaving bloody hand prints in the dirt, and then pushed herself up, bringing her prayer stick up in front of her once more.

Her arms might have been trembling so hard she couldn't keep the stick upright, and there might have been tears in the corners of her eyes, but there was also burning fire and grim determination in those lilac depths too.

She continued the summoning ritual.

_"... Takemi Katana no kami. Iwatsutsu no oh gami. Kanayana Hiko no kami. God of Kanayama Hime no kami. Tsurugi no Ikusa gami. Tate no Ikusa gami..."_

Utena stared at the girl in horror, even as she felt that roaring at the back of her head grow louder and louder. "Stop it!" Utena cried, cringing. The heavy feeling in her chest kept getting heavier and heavier.

She could feel another presence inside her heart, and her mind, as though it were a bright white light, getting strong, and more powerful, eradicating her memories and her thoughts, erasing anything that might have once called itself 'Tenjou Utena', and leaving her only as Ame no Murakumo, God of Swordsmen: The Prince.

_"Along with the powers of the eight hundred million gods, I wish for the revival of Ame no Murakumo. Onegai. Release the god of Susanou. The atoning life shall be driven out." _

"Please." Utena begged, one last time, weakly falling to her knees. "Please, no. I'm not who you think I am. My name is Tenjou Utena. I'm just... I'm just a normal girl. Like you. You're just a normal girl too. And you... you'll die if you don't stop. Please. You're not strong enough alone. Please. Stop-"

_Shichoku._

The three remaining sealing wards shattered.

And Utena was no longer a normal, regular, teenage girl.

She was the Prince, the Hero, the Saviour.

She was the incarnation of justice, and hope, and goodness.

She was Ame no Murakumo, the God of Swordsman, and she had been summoned once again, to destroy and seal her eternal enemy, Yamata no Orochi, the Eight Headed Demon of Despair.

She was no longer in the cave, standing beside the girl who had so stubbornly summoned her against the harsh punishments of the gods. Instead, she was rising forth from where she had been buried, 300 years ago, on the moon, and her form was godly indeed, enormous, white and glowing, in the shape of a sacred sword.

_... what... what is going on? _Utena wondered weakly.

She could hear a voice calling her. A girl's voice. A familiar voice.

And that's when it hit her; that's when Utena realized why the tawny haired girl had felt so familiar to her.

She was the Solar Priestess, reborn once again. And the feelings of fondness that Utena had felt for the girl had come from Ame no Murakumo within her, recognizing the soul of the Solar Priestess, she who spent 284 years out of every 300 in solitary confinement on the moon, in the Lunar Shrine on top of which the God of Swordsman was entombed.

_Curious_, Utena thought. _Aren't there supposed to be two Priestesses?_

And then, not for the first time and not for the last, she wondered how she could have possibly known that.

The commands of the Solar Priestess were being uttered thousands of miles away from her – from the Earth, in Japan, at Oogami Shrine, and yet, Utena no Ame no Murakumo, could hear them as though they'd been uttered directly by her ear.

_"With the Mutsu sword, I wish to begin the ritual to cease the god. Descend, god of swordsmen, Ame no Murakumo."_

And Utena found herself barreling towards the earth at enormous speeds, the blues of ocean, the greens of land and the browns of mighty mountain ranges streaking past her, barely recognizable, before she stabbed into the earth at the feet of the Solar Priestess, she who had summoned her, and transformed into her true self, a true god, impossibly tall, and gleaming white to all who beheld her.

It was disorienting, and Utena thought she might throw up from the sudden nauseous she felt from being able to see the world all over at once through what felt like a million sets of eyes all over the place, though, the chief pair she was seeing with right now were glowing green, and godly, set in a body of gleaming white, vaguely mechanical seeming armour.

She could also see, and feel, two heartbeats inside her, neither of them her own. One, she recognized right away as belonging to the Solar Priestess, Kurusugawa Himeko. Ancient memories and instincts recognized the reincarnated soul of the Solar Priestess instantly, the one who spent the vast majority of her time locked in the Lunar Shrine, in darkness and solitude, after accomplishing her duty of sacrificing her life to undo Orochi's evil and re-writing the universe so that all who were killed and all that was destroyed was undone.

Kurusugawa Himeko had summoned her – the Prince, Ame no Murakumo – by herself this time. Preposterous! The strength of will and spirit to complete the ritual to commune with the gods was incredible, beyond the capacity of humanity.

But, if anyone could have done so, it would have to have been she who could endure nothingness, emptiness, blackness, _the torture of solitary confinement_, again and again, and again, for 95% of her existence, for as long as humanity walked the earth, _and still go on_.

Utena no Ame no Murakumo gazed down at the Solar Priestess within her, and felt_ humbled_ to be in her presence. She – the Prince herself – awed and humbled by the tenacity and sheer strength of will of a human girl...

The other heartbeat within her... curious. It was not the Lunar Priestess, Himemiya Chikane. It was someone else. Oogami Souma. Seventh Neck of Orochi himself, harbinger of death, despair, and destruction. The young man had taken the Lunar Priestess's position, on the upper navigational platform. His eyes were set in determination, and Utena no Ame no Murakumo could feel the strength within him too, the nobility, the goodness. He was refusing his destiny, rising above it. She could not help but feel fondness for him as well.

"Let's go, Himeko." Souma said quietly.

The Solar Priestess, nodded.

Off to battle they went.

They waited grimly upon the wasted remains of the earth for their ancient enemy to appear. Yamata no Orochi, the Eight Headed Demon of Despair, Incarnation of Rage, Misery and Desolation.

Utena no Ame no Murakumo felt very little surprise, only a grim sort of epiphany, really, when she saw who lead their enemy.

It was Himemiya Chikane, the Lunar Priestess herself.

_Of course,_ Utena no Ame no Murakumo couldn't help but realize, with a heavy heart. _Of course. _

While the Solar Priestess drank heavily from the river styx at the beginning of every life – she HAD to; there was NO WAY her mind could retain any semblance of sanity if she remembered the details of centuries upon centuries of nothing but darkness and solitude – it was the burden of the Lunar Priestess that the guilt of her sins were so heavy, they found ways to creep into her memory, even between cycles of reincarnation, until that guilt had built up and up and up so much that she just couldn't take it anymore.

If Utena no Ame no Murakumo had to guess, it was probably the end of the Lunar Priestess's _last_ life, 300 years ago, when she was Shimotsuke no Kugamiya no Chikane, and the Solar Priestess had been born Shimotsuke no Tokiha no Himeko, that finally did it. _That_ life had been especially cruel and especially unjust to the Lunar Priestess.

Really, Utena no Ame no Murakumo thought, it was inevitable that the Lunar Priestess would be driven towards the enemy's side, into Orochi's embrace. Who else but he could claim to understand the deepest and darkest of her despair? It was, actually, surprising that the Lunar Priestess had held out for as long as she did.

They fought. The seven disciples of Yamata no Orochi fought against the Solar Priestess and the boy who defected from them, and it was not much of a battle, at least, not until the individual disciples themselves combined and finally summoned Yamata no Orochi himself onto the battlefield.

Things got a little more complicated after that.

For a while, it appeared that Yamata no Orochi would finally emerge as the victor for the first time in his unending battle with the God of Swordsmen, and things began to look very grim indeed as the Solar Priestess and Lunar Priestess themselves turned their swords onto one another...

... until Himemiya Chikane finally managed to goad Kurusugawa Himeko into running her through.

Then out came the truth.

Lifetimes of longing.

A burden built upon dredges of guilt accumulated to a breaking point across millennia.

A brutality meant to sever all chances of redemption.

And then a miracle happened. Something eternal and shining. Something revolutionary.

Not only did Kurusugawa Himeko absolve Himemiya Chikane, she returned her feelings.

She told her she loved her too. That she'd always loved her and always will. And no one, not Orochi, not Ame no Murakumo, or any of the other 800 million gods in the universe could ever change that.

And the light that shone from the Priestess of the Sun was so strong, darkness didn't have a chance at all, and yet another disciple of Orochi turned against his master. Onizuka Tsubasa reached out and gave Oogami Souma that little bit of strength he needed to break free and continue his fight against the darkness of despair, and Yamata no Orochi was defeated, banished once again, sealed under chain and ward again, at least, until the next cycle.

But the damage had already been done. Yamata no Orochi had already ruined the world, turning it into a wasteland, and for his evil to be undone, one of the Priestesses of the God of Swordsmen would have to sacrifice her life to move the gods to action. The energy from her life would be broken up, and used to repair the damage done to the fabric of reality brought on by Orochi's rampage. It would have to be done quickly; there wasn't much time left.

Utena no Ame no Murakumo tried to give her priestesses as much time as she could to say their goodbyes, for the next 300 years, but of course, it could never be enough.

_"Find me, Himeko!"_ Chikane cried, even as she was lifted away. _"I'll come back! I promise! Find me!"_

_"I will, Chikane-chan!" _Himeko cried back. _"I promise! I'll look all over the world for you!"_

And then they were pulled apart.

And Utena could hear herself speaking, though how she was speaking, or how she knew what to say, she didn't know. She watched as the Lunar Priestess slowly walked up the long steps of the Lunar Shrine, a pensive expression on her face.

_I WILL NOT ASK FOR FORGIVENESS, _Utena could hear her own voice booming. _WILL YOU BLAME YOUR FATE, LUNAR PRIESTESS? DO YOU WISH FOR THE VOID'S PEACE, OVER THE EVERLASTING CYCLE OF PARTINGS? _

Through giant glowing eyes that she finalized came to accept were her own, Utena stared, in silent fascination and horror, as the young woman reached the top of the steps. Before stepping into the shrine, the blue-black haired girl turned to look up at the earth once more. After a moment, she shook her head.

"I met Himeko again," Himemiya Chikane said, her voice soft, and resigned. "So I'm happy now. More so than anyone." She turned and walked into the shrine, settling down into a seiza, on her knees, for a very, very, _very_ long wait. In silence. In darkness. In solitude.

_No._ Utena thought to herself. _What's going on? This isn't right. They just... they just saved the world. They should be happy. Why isn't she happy? Is she... is she just going to stay there? In the shrine? Imprisoned?_

_YES._ Utena could hear that part of herself that was now eternal, miraculous and shining, above it all, above all of humanity, Ame no Murakumo, the Prince, all that was good in the world. _FOR THE NEXT 300 YEARS, THE SOUL OF THE LUNAR PRIESTESS SHALL REMAIN IN THE LUNAR SHRINE. THAT IS HER CHOICE. _

_Alone?_

_YES._

And Utena stared at the Lunar Priestess, stared into the beautiful, porcelain, sad, sad, sad, _sad_ face of Himemiya Chikane.

Tears were silently spilling from the girl's eyes, and she made no move to brush them away.

The resemblance was remarkable. The loneliness. The longing.

_... Anthy..._

_... THE LUNAR PRIESTESS SHARES MANY SIMILAR QUALITIES WITH THE ROSE BRIDE. WITH THE WITCH._

_Then how can she want that? _Utena thought desperately to herself. _How can anyone... be happy... to want that?!_

And then Himemiya Chikane uttered one word, just before the doors of the Lunar Shrine slammed shut with a resounding, final, deafening boom, which told Utena that, of course, she didn't want any of this at all.

She wasn't happy at all.

Who could be?

"Himeko."

**_*BOOM*_**

The doors of the Lunar Shrine slammed shut.

And Utena found herself falling. Falling, falling, falling, out of the upside down castle -shrine in the sky, rushing back down towards the earth, her giant, vaguely mechanical armour disappearing, her body shrinking, smaller and smaller, becoming softer, flesh, and warm, a human body, topped with a head of pink hair. The hospital she'd been bedridden at for the last several months (months? When had the weeks stretched out into months?) began to loom in front of her, growing larger, and larger. She passed through the roof, through the top three floors, and she could see her hospital bed. She could start to feel it under her body, the crinkly feeling of her hospital gown, her head coming to rest on the pillow, everything growing dark again, as her eyes were closing.

_No._ Utena thought. _No! This isn't right! This isn't right at all! Someone! Anyone! Help her!_

_WHO CAN THERE POSSIBLY BE TO HELP HER? _

Utena didn't answer. Gritting her teeth in determination, she squeezed her eyes shut, and _reached_.

She reached as high and as far up as she could, her arms long enough to touch that upside down castle-shrine in the sky, on the moon. She reached inside the Lunar Shrine, her hands groping, until she found the form she was looking for, the Lunar Priestess, Himemiya Chikane, sitting in solitude by the shrine doors, her head bowed.

Utena reached. From behind, she wrapped her arms forward around the Lunar Priestess's shoulders, and she could feel the girl's back, warm, thin, and weeping, pressing up against her front, as she pulled the girl into a tight hug.

The Lunar Priestess's eyes opened in surprise. Slowly, she turned to look behind her, and teary blue-green eyes met fond ocean blue eyes for the first time.

"Who... are you?" She whispered.

Utena smiled kindly. _Come with me,_ she said. _You don't have to be alone here. I'll send you back to your loved one's side. Come with me._

The Lunar Priestess stared at Utena in wonder, in fascination.

In hope.

She closed her eyes, and nodded.

Himemiya Chikane's form wavered, once, twice, and then faded into Utena's body, into her lower abdomen, into her womb.

Utena's eyes snapped wide open and she gasped, back in her hospital bed, broken out in cold sweat, the machines beside her booping and beeping crazily with her return back into the mortal world.

_'Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news?'_

"Who's there?" Utena asked, feeling dreadfully tired.

Everything felt fuzzy and blurry, and disorienting. She couldn't remember where she was, or what had happened, though she couldn't quite shake the feeling that something very important had indeed just occurred.

She warily looked about her, but there was no one else in the room with her. She was alone in her hospital room, with only the shadows, splayed against the wall, caused by the setting evening sun streaming in through the blinds.

She didn't really pay the shadows any attention, couldn't really, when she realized that there _was_ someone else in the room with her: Her tummy was now very, very, large, easily recognizable even with the blankets pulled up. She was well into the third trimester by now.

_'Whip out the pink jumpers and the baby shoes! You're gonna want some barbies, stuffed animals, and frilly dresses! She's gonna be a girl!'_

* * *

*NOW*

_Did Ohtori always seem so... creepy? _Juri couldn't help but wonder as she pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and stared up at the rose themed iron wrought front school gates. Somehow, she had remembered this place to be more whimsical and elegant, what with all the artistic, European-inspired architecture. Of course, back then, she had been but a child, and the elementary through university level school had been her entire world, a small, tightly enclosed world of which she knew nothing beyond, so, maybe it was natural that she had thought so highly of the place.

Now, as an adult looking back, she realized that the magic this place once held for her had faded somewhat, and for that, Juri couldn't help but feel glad. She was suddenly very thankful that she hadn't gone to University at Ohtori.

"Arisugawa Juri." Came a familiar voice.

Turning to the side, Juri spied a tall, familiar man with a head full of long luxurious red hair and a charming smile. The smile surprised her; it was far more tired, and far more sincere, than she had ever recalled seeing it.

Kiryuu Touga extended a hand out to her. "It has been too long."

Juri looked down at that hand, and after a moment, grasped it, and was a little surprised to find it firm, but polite. "It has been a long time, hasn't it, Touga?" She eyed him appraisingly. "You look... well."

She was being polite – he looked like hell. Well, maybe not quite hell, but, he certainly wasn't the slick bastard she remembered him to be. There were lines around his eyes brought on by more than just years, and a hollow sort of sullenness about his face. High cheekbones which once charmed the very skirts right off half the female student population, now just made him look a little haunted.

Unfortunately, Juri could quite easily recognize what made him look this way. Indeed, she herself could be said to have sported (still sporting) a similar expression, since Himeko's departure; Kiryuu Touga was in mourning.

"The years have been kinder to you than they have me," Touga answered easily. He motioned to the gates. "Maybe it is because I have stayed here and had the pleasure of meeting fresh new faces year after year, each year younger than the last, but I do feel far older than I should." He laughed quietly. "You are lucky to have escaped Ohtori, Juri."

Juri frowned. No one ever really escaped the torment of adolescence, least of all if you spent most of it at Ohtori, but she could understand what he was getting at. "You did too, Touga, if I recall correctly. Didn't you spend several years running a part of your family's conglomerate? I understand you only returned to Ohtori relatively recently as its headmaster. What made you come back?"

"The same thing, I suspect, as what makes you stand here upon Ohtori's door steps once more." Touga replied softly.

Juri's frowned deepened. "The body?"

Touga didn't answer right away. Instead, he flicked his eyes up at the rose themed gates, and motioned towards it. "Please, why don't we go wait with the others in the board room. Miki and Kyouichi are already here. My sister as well, Nanami, if you remember her. You are the last to arrive." He paused. "The police wanted to interview all of us involved in the student council back then. They have already spoken with myself at length, and saw Kyouichi this morning. They are interviewing Nanami now."

"Nanami." Juri couldn't help but feel the corner of her lips tug up into a smirk, even as they entered onto school grounds and walked towards the administrative building. One did not simply forget about Kiryuu Nanami.

Touga chuckled. "Yes. She is Tsuwabuki Nanami now. She married Mitsuru two years ago."

A flame-colored eyebrow lifted in amusement. "Miki's replacement on the council?"

Touga nodded. "The same."

"Poor man."

"In the eyes of some, perhaps." Touga laughed again. "But, recall, Mitsuru-kun has been in love with my sister since he was 9 years old. Some would argue that he is happier than he knows what to do with himself."

"How is Takatsu..." Touga paused for a moment, and then made an apologetic face. "Ah. Forgive me, I must be tired, but, it is not Takatsuki-san whom you are with anymore, is it?"

Juri raised an eyebrow. Her former colleague really must have been very tried to make such a social blunder. That wasn't like Kiryuu Touga, infamous Student Council President and Resident Campus Playboy, at all. He really must still be shaken up about the body. "I haven't spoken to Shiori in 10 years, Touga." She said quietly. There was an awkward pause in their relationship. "Not all of our hearts remained stuck in high school."

"Yes, of course, you are right." Touga answered cordially enough, but Juri could tell her remark had hurt him, for then he continued, quite smoothly. "I meant to ask, how is Kurusugawa-san?"

Juri didn't answer him; if he knew Himeko's name, then he likely knew he was hitting below the belt by enquiring about her.

When they made it to the board room, they found Miki sitting at the table with Saionji Kyouichi at one end. Seeing Juri, a smile came to Miki's face and he stood up. "Juri-san." Said the ocean blue-haired man. He came over and gave Juri a hug, which she returned.

It still felt a little strange to Juri to have to reach upwards to embrace Miki. She supposed that she would always remember him as a pre-pubescent, even though he was quite tall now – almost as tall as Touga, though he still had a slight build. "Miki," Juri said, warmly, "when did you get back to Japan?"

"Just a couple of days before I called," Miki replied. He paused, and then offered Juri another hug, a tighter one. It surprised Juri a little bit – Miki was kind, but never overly affectionate – until he whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry about Himeko-san. How are you holding up?"

Truth be told, Juri couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. Honestly, when had everyone and their dog been able to poke their noses into her business? But, she supposed, such was the fate of one who made a living even on the edges of the limelight. While the paparazzi hadn't made it to Fuuka, Juri had been less than pleased to find them all waiting for her in Tokyo.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Juri lied, patting Miki on the back. She then offered him a rueful, slightly sarcastic smile. "It's not my first time around this block."

Miki chuckled. "No pendants?"

Juri frowned. "Well, actually..."

The blue haired man raised an eyebrow and frowned in disapproval, but before he could say anything, Saionji had made it to them and had offered her his hand. "Arisugawa."

Juri was a little surprised but took it. "Saionji."

"It is good to see you in good health. It's too bad this reunion wasn't happening under better circumstances." Saionji said, and Juri's surprise went up a notch. The Saionji Kyouichi she remembered was far more angry with the world and too arrogant to bother with pleasantries. The green haired man before her had mellowed, significantly.

It was an interesting contrast, Juri decided. Saionji and Touga had been friends (or at least, had experienced a relationship as close to 'friendship' as the two of them had been capable of) during high school, and had been constantly compared and contrasted by the female student population. Whereas Touga seemed weaker with grief now, Saionji looked far stronger and healthier now than he did as a teenager.

If Juri had to guess, Saionji (nee Shinohara) Wakaba, Kyouichi's spouse, probably had a lot to do with that health. Indeed, the green haired man even mentioned his wife now. "Wakaba sends her regards."

Juri smiled faintly. "How is Wakaba doing?"

"She was a bit disappointed to not be able to come, but we are expecting our first child soon. Beyond that, she is in good spirits."

"That's good to hear." Juri smiled. "Congratulations. Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"We do not," Saionji admitted, running a hand through his wavy green locks with a hint of a rueful smile. "I wanted to find out in advance, but she did not, and she seems to win all the arguments these days. Everything's been painted green, to be safe."

Juri couldn't help but laugh. "Wouldn't everything have been painted green anyway?"

Saionji smiled.

It was then that Juri heard the high pitched, overly mellow-dramatic wail of a true diva, one she hadn't seen in almost a decade. Seriously. There might have even been violins playing in the background when Tsuwabuki Nanami spun into the room with her wrist held up to her forehead, as though the most horrific of travesties had befallen her.

"My god!" The blonde bombshell cried, "the nerve of that man! How dare he insinuate that I, Tsuwabuki Nanami, might have anything at all to do with this horrific discovery! Oh, the scandal! Oh, the shame! Oh, I don't think I can stand it!" She flopped over onto the nearest chair in the room with such force her seat spun around.

Juri couldn't help but crack a smile. "Hello Nanami. Still as dramatic as ever, I see?"

Nanami smiled knowingly at Juri. "The academy seldom awards comediennes, Juri-sempai."

"Oh, I don't know," Juri chuckled wryly. "You were quite humorous in your last soap opera, weren't you? What did the critics call your performance? The most delightful impression of a heifer they'd ever seen?"

"Shut up and die in a sewer, Sempai." Nanami said, still smiling as sweetly as a princess. And then she blinked and whirled her head around to address the harried looking police detective who had come into the room with her. "Oh, I didn't mean that as a real threat, officer. That was a joke."

"For the last time, that's 'Detective', Tsuwabuki-san," the harried looking man said warily. "And yes, it was pretty obvious to even this 'buffoon trying to pass himself off as law enforcement' that that was a joke." He looked over at the new addition that had entered into the room. "Are you Arisugawa Juri-san?" He asked.

Juri nodded. "I am."

"Good. My name is Arima Soichiro. Could you come with me please?"

Raising an eyebrow, Juri nodded curtly, and then left with the Detective to sit in the other room – a currently unused office.

"Do you know why you are here, Arisugawa-san?" The Detective asked.

"According to the headlines," Juri replied, "I believe you found a body on campus? One that looks like it's been here for approximately 16 years, which would have been when I was attending Ohtori Academy, and was part of the Student Council, as Treasurer."

Arima nodded. "That's right. The body was found in the forest behind the school, which I understand, was off limits to all students, except for the Student Council. That is why all the student council members are of interest to us." He sighed. "Honestly, I don't get these new fang-dangled philosophies that allow kids to have so much power in the administration of a school. It's just asking for an accident to happen."

Juri raised an eyebrow. "A school governed for the students by the students is not a new philosophy." She said crisply. "Why, take Fuuka Academy, for example. It is arguably one of the best schools in the country, and it runs strictly on that principle."

"Yes, and you were a Director there until recently, were you not?" Arima looked down at his notes and frowned. "That's somewhat unusual, isn't it, Arisugawa-san? That someone like yourself, with a background in fashion, and fencing, but nothing really with education, would end up on the board of directors at a school?"

Juri's eyes narrowed. "What are you trying to insinuate, Detective?"

"Nothing at all." Arima said. Then he sighed. "Alright, I'm just going to come out and say it, Arisugawa-san. Were you involved in some sort of cult or "secret society" that performed duels with live swords in the clearing in the forest behind the school?"

"Yes." Juri replied, quite easily. "Though it wasn't a cult or a secret society. Just a bunch of stupid students convincing themselves that they were special. We knocked roses off of each other's chests. In retrospect, that was stupid and dangerous, but I wouldn't call it illegal."

"I'd say the lines of legality become quite clearly crossed when a skeleton shows up with evidence of so many stab and cut wounds embedded in the bone it looks like it went through a lawnmower."

Juri frowned intensely. "May I see the body?"

Arima shook his head. "Not unless you want to go down to the morgue."

"I do."

"Then you are welcome to do so later. In the meanwhile, all I have are these." He put a stack of photos down in front of her.

Juri picked up the first picture and stared at it.

It was a picture of a skeleton wearing a very shredded up boy's uniform, black in color. Even from the picture, Juri could tell that the skeleton was very, very scratched up and pock marked, as though it really had been through a lawnmower. The skull still had bits and pieces of long, pale pink hair stuck to it.

As Juri stared at the picture, she could not help but feel a strange sort of closure come over her.

"Do you know who that is?" Arima asked.

Juri's brow crinkled. She nodded.

Arima raised an eyebrow. "You do? Who is he?"

Juri frowned. "She. It's a girl."

The detective's second eyebrow raised. "How did you know that? She *is* wearing the boy's uniform after all."

Juri's frown deepened. "The boy's uniforms were green. There was only one person who got away with wearing that, and she was a girl. But I... I can't remember her name." She said, feeling suddenly very troubled, and disturbed.

_It's... it's her,_ Juri couldn't help but think._ HER! But... who was she? And why can't I remember...?_

Arima blinked, and sighed. "Well, at least you're all consistent." He muttered. "All of your peers pretty much said the same thing. You all look at this picture, like you should know her, and yet you don't." He shook his head. "I don't get it. 25 years I've been on this force. You're all smart, rich, powerful people, so I'm sure you've all lawyer'ed up already, and should know what _not_ to say. You all could have kept us tied up in the courts for decades until this became just another cold case. And yet, somehow, you all show up, some of you even travelling pretty long distances, and you all agree to meet with me without a lawyer, you all say the most _ridiculous _things that would implicate you like _that_." He snapped his fingers, even as he shook his head. "I don't get it. Was there something in the water here, or something?"

Juri frowned. "Something... to that effect." She said, very slowly.

"Do you care to elaborate?"

Juri took a deep breath as she tried to gather her thoughts. "Actually, Arima -san," she said quite calmly. "It might interest you to know that I have not yet reached out to my legal council. However, I also have absolutely nothing that I feel I need to hide here, and if you are going to find justice for this girl, whose name I cannot recall for the life of me, but who I distinctly remember making a very large difference in my life, perhaps even having a hand in making me who I am today, even if I can't remember how, then I want to do everything in my power to help you." She frowned. "Have you tried to contact the actual administration of the school from back then? The Chairman from that time? You can't tell me that a girl can disappear from a school and not have this incident reported and recorded somewhere."

Arima sighed. "You're partially right, a girl shouldn't be able to just disappear from a school, but there are absolutely no records at all of this student having disappeared while attending this school. There was one student who dropped out around that time, but his name was Tsuchiya Ruka, and he died of heart failure. As for the Chairman from back then, Ohtori Akio has been MIA for many years now."

Those two names she hadn't thought about in years now hit Juri harder than she thought it would have. _Ruka. Akio. _Juri's heart twisted into knots, and for a moment, she wondered what the world was coming to, and when it had stopped making any sense at all.

Empty photos suddenly filled. Photo albums suddenly appearing in boxes. A body found. Names, long dead, in body and memory.

Juri frowned. "What about his sister?" Her brow deepened. "At least, I seem to recall that... that there was a girl, his sister. I can't remember her name, but she..." She looked at the picture of the skeleton. "She was important to this girl. They were always together. I remember that."

The Detective took note of Juri's words.

They talked a little more, getting mostly nowhere, before he finally let her go.

At the end of the conversation, he looked at her, and asked, "is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Juri considered this for a moment, and finally nodded. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she brought out an old, stylized rose pendant, opened it, and handed the item to him.

Arima raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

"A picture of her." Juri said quietly. "I used to wear a rose pendant with someone else's picture inside when I went to school here. That pendant broke, somehow. I don't remember how. But, I remember getting a new one. And asking... asking her for a picture, to put into it." Juri frowned as she tried to reach into the depths of her memory. "... badminton." She said. "I remember asking for it during a game of badminton, I think. Anyway, I got one."

The Detective stared at her for a moment, before looking inside the pendant.

Inside was a blurry, under-focused and overexposed action shot of a girl with long pink hair wearing a black blazer and holding a book bag over one shoulder. She was looking in the camera's direction, long pink hair flying in the wind. There was an easy, confident smile on her face, and clear, remarkable ocean blue eyes.

"Can I keep this?" The detective asked.

"I would like it back eventually." Juri replied.

"I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises."

"I suppose that will have to do."

Their interrogation thus ended, Juri went back to the boardroom. Saionji and Nanami had already left, leaving just Touga and Miki.

"Would you like to do some catching up over dinner?" Miki asked.

Juri nodded. "Yes. I would like that." She looked at the Detective. "Can I go now?"

The Detective nodded. "Yes. Thank you for your help, Arisugawa-san. I'll try to return your pendant as soon as I can."

When he said this, both Miki and Touga raised their eyebrows, and looked over at Juri, who didn't answer. She just got ready to leave the room.

"Headmaster," the Detective looked at Touga. "May I have a word?"

Touga looked like he didn't much want to give the man any more time, but eventually, he nodded. "If this could be done quickly."

While Touga talked to the Detective, Miki and Juri grabbed their coats and made to leave the school.

They actually almost got to the front gates, when Juri heard Touga call her name.

"Wait, Juri. Please!" Touga called, slightly breathless from having to catch up to them. "May I have a word with you?"

"Yes?" Juri raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Touga shot Miki a look, and the other man raised an eyebrow before excusing himself, leaving the two of them alone.

Unfortunately, now that they were alone, the ambiance between them became unmistakably awkward.

"Where... where did you get that picture?" Touga finally demanded. "Juri, what do you know about that girl?"

Juri frowned. "I've already told everything I already know to the Detective, Touga. Which is, admittedly, not much."

"Please." Touga said, and the pleading in his voice was unmistakable. "Juri. You know I am not one used to begging. If you know anything at all about her at all, _anything_, please, can you just-"

"Forget about her and move on." Juri snapped. "How many years have you now wasted on the ghost of a memory? Grow up, Touga, and get over it. She was never yours, and she wouldn't want you to think she ever was."

Juri's words hung in the air, as though she had slapped him verbally with them. And, somehow, Juri felt like she had slapped herself with them too. She could remember words she had spoken to Himeko so many years ago now. They echoed endlessly in her head.

Juri swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.

Suddenly, she understood, with complete clarity, why Himeko had needed to leave in the middle of the night, why she had had to cut herself off so cleanly, so abruptly.

Words Juri had once spoken to Himeko, she now repeated to Touga, but really, more, to herself.

"Don't waste your life." Juri said quietly. "It's not worth your youth and happiness waiting for a miracle. They may happen, but you still have to reach out to grab one for yourself, and you, you're not even reaching."

Juri swallowed. This next part was new. "The miracle isn't that she'll come back to you, because she won't. The miracle is that you will still be able to find happiness. The right one is out there, somewhere. Who knows, maybe you've even already met her."

Touga stared at Juri for a long time, his blue eyes staring deeply into her blue-green ones.

Finally, Touga cracked a smile. Another genuine smile. Ludicrous. "Juri, is there a chance you might be coming on to me?"

Juri laughed, a genuine, hearty laugh, the first one she'd had since Himeko had left her. "Not if you were the last woman on the planet."

* * *

Touga ended up joining Miki and Juri for dinner, which was an unexpectedly pleasant, though short affair. Juri enjoyed herself, she really did, but ultimately, she wasn't that close to Touga, and so, things she had hoped to get Miki's council on, she hadn't been able to. So, after Touga left, Juri invited Miki back to her hotel suite for a further chat.

She uncorked a bottle of white wine, as that was his preference, and gave him a glass with a generous amount.

Miki laughed. "Juri-san, are you trying to get me drunk?"

Juri rolled her eyes. "Wow. Hit on by two men on the same day. Which patron deity of sapphic love did I piss off recently?"

The blue haired man offered her a sympathetic smile. "... how are you holding up, Sempai?" He asked quietly.

It took Juri a while to answer, but finally, she sighed. "It's been pretty rough, Miki. I haven't felt this bad since Shiori. Actually, in some ways, I think this feels far worse." She gave a somewhat hollow laugh. "But somehow, today, after... after seeing _her_," there was no mistakening who '_she_' was, "even if it was just her... remains... somehow, it made me feel better. Like I finally found closure for something I didn't even know I was missing."

Miki's eyes were downcast. "I... I feel the same way." He said quietly. "You know, all this time, I had felt like something was strange with my memory. You know how I am, Juri-san," he said. "I don't normally forget things, but for some reason, everything about Ohtori has always been so... so blurry. After Touga called me about finding her body, somehow, I've started feeling... relieved. Like I finally know what happened."

Juri nodded. They had covered this conversation already at dinner with Touga. "Mhph," Juri made a noise, even as she took a gulp of wine. "That's not why I wanted to talk to you though. Hang on." Finding a remote, Juri hit play, and the disc she had put into the CD player started to go.

Piano music started to play in the room.

Miki raised an eyebrow. "What's this?" He asked.

"Just listen and tell me what you think." Juri asked.

So Miki did as he was asked, and listened to the music with a critical, professional ear.

"Amateur." He said, after a few moments, though his brow was knit. After a few more minutes, he revised his assessment. "Talented amateur."

And then, after a few more minutes: "Very talented amateur."

Finally, when Juri hit pause, and gazed over at him, Miki returned Juri's gaze with a very intense look.

"What's her name?" He asked, in a serious, but excited tone of voice.

Juri raised an eyebrow. "How did you know she's a girl?"

Miki only chuckled. "What's her name, Juri-san?"

"What did you think?" Juri pressed.

The professional composer rolled his eyes. "Clearly, Juri-san," he said, quite dryly, "you already know that I am impressed. It is obvious that she has not had formal training, that much is certain. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I should be able to mold her to her full potential without prior training getting in the way, though it will take a bit of hard work to grind through those bad habits I hear."

Juri gave a melancholy laugh. "Can you already tell so much about her potential? From one song?"

"Juri-san," Miki said, quite earnestly. "A talent like that comes once a generation. If even you, forgive my words, with no formal training, can appreciate her work enough to known to bring it to my attention, how do you think I feel?" He laughed. "You were trying to find your legacy in fencing at Fuuka Academy, Juri-san. Even if you haven't found it there yet, please don't deny me mine."

Juri didn't answer him right away. She just continued to laugh, sadly, even as she shook her head ruefully.

When Miki asked her why she was laughing, she wasn't quite able to tell him.

She didn't tell him the identity of the musician that night, though she promised that she would disclose her identity to him in due time.

They chatted a little while more before the wine was finished. Juri walked Miki down to the hotel lobby to say goodbye to him there.

"It was really good to see you, Miki." Juri said, giving him another hug.

"You too, Juri-san." The blue-haired man laughed. "And I will be pestering you endlessly if you do not give me the name of that pianist."

"Yes, yes. I will." Juri waved her hand. "Just... just give me a little bit of time to prepare myself."

Miki laughed and then turned to go.

Juri went back to the elevator to head back to her room.

As the doors closed, an arm suddenly stuck in through the crack. "Wait for me please!"

Raising an eyebrow, Juri hit the 'open' button on the doors, and they opened once more, allowing a pink-haired girl carrying a duffle bag to board the elevator.

"Thanks!" She said, before her eyes went wide. "Oh!"

Juri's eyes went wide too.

They stared at each other incredulously.

Juri felt like she was staring at a ghost.

She wasn't that far off, actually, considering she'd been looking at pictures of the girl's body just that afternoon.

* * *

More so than most, Himemiya Anthy, the Witch, the former Rose Bride, understood sacrifice. More so than most, she understood loneliness, and despair. More so than most (but not all (but still most)).

Sometimes, she wondered if they were all part of some sort of cosmic joke. Of all things that could have been part of her domain, her sphere of influence, of all the basic fundamental building blocks of the universe, why did unrequitedness, unfulfillment & loneliness need an incarnation, and why did _she_ have to shoulder that personification? Was that not, essentially, a doomed sentence from the get go? An existence that promised nothing but pain?

One of the very few beings in the universe who could possible know and feel her burdens even more so than herself, was sitting at the shore of the river styx, gazing out over the water, as though the waves had hypnotized him. His face was an expressionless mask. Indeed, she wondered if he even knew how to facially emote (at least, emotions beyond rage and despair, anyway).

"What are you waiting for?" The Witch asked the former Eight Headed Demon of Despair. "Like my brother, you have been cut off from the power that fed you, Orochi. You are no longer the incarnation of despair, as you have found someone else to take that mantle from you. You are free now and have the opportunity to join the mortal coil, should you wish. What are you waiting for?"

Orochi continued to simply stare out over the water, blinking a few times. He looked over at her blankly, and then looked back out over the water.

_I… DO NOT KNOW._ Orochi communicated, his thoughts projecting directly into her mind. He hadn't quite figured out how to use his mouth for talking yet either, it appeared. _MY AGREEMENT WITH THE FALLEN PRINCE, WITH THE END OF THE WORLD, IS FULFILLED. I HAVE BEEN FREED FROM MY PRISON, FOREVER. I NO LONGER HAVE TO SHOULDER THE BURDEN OF DESPAIR. DESTROYING THE NEW DEMON OF DESPAIR, AS SHE IS DESTINED TO DO, WILL ALSO SURELY DESTROY THE HEART OF THE NEW PRINCE, SO, THAT PROMISE TOO, IS FULFILLED. THERE IS NOTHING HOLDING ME HERE, AND YET, I FIND MYSELF UNABLE TO GO ON, WITHOUT KNOWING HOW THIS...THIS ABSURDITY WILL ALL END._

Orochi looked back over at the Witch. He studied her in fascination, and after an eternity of a moment, he opened his mouth, and spoke, for the first time. "... You..." he said hesitantly, as though he wasn't quite comfortable with the concept of lips and a tongue. "You... have walked amongst humanity longer than I. Not... not just appearing before them, every once a blue moon, but truly walked amongst them." He blinked. "Tell me, Witch. Himemiya Anthy. Why is humanity so..." he furrowed his brow. "So... complicated? Why do they insist on continuing on? The Prince... the Prince was denied to them, for many millennia, and yet, they go on. From where do they draw their strength?"

She shook her head. "I cannot answer that. I am not human, after all."

Orochi frowned further. "But even so, you are the same way. Why do you continue on? You are loneliness. You are unfulfillment. You cannot even appear before the Prince because of the nature of your existence. She loves you, and so you cannot be with her. If you do appear before her, then it can only mean that she no longer loves you. If you appear before her, then the Swords of Humanity's hate, dormant within the heart of she who is also the God of Swordsmen, will awaken, and destroy you, and her. How can you stand this injustice? How can you stand to be the Witch?"

Anthy stared at her fellow god for a moment, letting not a small amount of surprise and wonder show on her face. Of all of the incarnations, she could never have thought that the Demon of Despair could understand her so well.

She couldn't answer him.

So, he simply frowned, and turned to look out at the waters of reincarnation again, lapping gently at his feet.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

*Pokes head shyly into ff .net*

Hey guys, so I'm two weeks late with this chapter, and very sorry about that. I thought I could push this out before the local con, but that was waaay too overly ambitious of me. Sorry for the wait! :(

The idea that Himeko has spent centuries upon centuries in solitary confinement, and that is why she reacted the way she did to the assault, is the idea behind Dezo's "Madness", and it has long since become Kannazuki no Canon in my head. This concept is thus not mine at all, and all credit should be given to DezoPenquin. I have just long since incorporated it into the KnM canonical mythos in my head and I can't begin to fathom how the series could work if this wasn't true.

The gods' names in the Utena flashback came straight out of KnM because I seriously could not make that stuff up myself either.

The next chapter should be out before the end of June 2013. Things are still quite busy, but not at the ridiculous levels they were at previously, so I should be able to write a little more quickly!

Cheers,

jen-chan

jen-chan-shaw. livejournal. com

* * *

OMAKE I: The Joke Continues to Run

[In the student's council room, NANAMI is bawling her eyes out on HARUKA's shoulder, sobbing incomprehensibly. MIDORI walks by and looks at the scene and seems a little confused, until a light bulb comes on over her head.]

MIDORI: Ah! Happy she got lines in this fic besides 'Moo'?

HARUKA: [Nodding] Very happy she got lines in this fic besides 'Moo'.

NANAMI: Buwaaaaaa! [Still crying]

* * *

OMAKE II: A Fillery Mai-Hime Style Preview

[NAO's voice can be heard doing the voice over for a series of fast paced clips edited together very confusingly and with deliberate misrepresentation so brazen the producers should be ashamed of themselves.]

NAO: F*ck this! Why do I have to do the preview for the fan-service filler episode?! And why are you censoring out my swearing now!? I've been cursing a blue streak for the last three chapters!

SISTER YUKARIKO: Now Sister Nao, I for one, approve of the censorship! You are not representing our lord in an appropriate manner when your language makes the navy blush.

NAO: [Boggles] Hey! What are you doing in this fic? I thought the author felt uncomfortable with her ability to portray you in a positive manner so conveniently wrote you out of this fic!

SISTER YUKARIKO: [Confused] What? But there's supposed to be a couple of pretty important scenes set in a church next chapter, even if it is supposed to be the Hot Springs Episode? How can things happen in a church and I NOT show up?

SISTER MIYAKO: You know, you're not the only nun in Mai Hime, Kannazuki no Miko or Utena. But, you do have a point. Hmm. Either my agent messed up my scheduling, or I think the author might be getting her nuns mixed up.

SISTER YUKARIKO: [Stares in flabbergast at what SISTER MIYAKO is trying to pass off as a nun's habit] Sweet and Merciful Mother Superior! You have more T&A going on than an escort service!

NAO: ... Clearly I attempted to join the wrong order. Clearly. [Rolls her eyes.] Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter of Revolutions, Chapter 17 – 'The Hot Springs Episode'...


End file.
